A Roanoke County man who ordered child pornography through the mail was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison, the mandatory minimum for a previously convicted child molester.

But U.S. District Court Judge James Turk told prosecutors that he would have levied a lighter sentence if he could, because he was unconvinced that Dennis Marco Mills, 48, had molested more children since his last conviction.

"If the mandatory minimum did not exist, the court would not have given him this much time on this crime -- just for ordering these two films," Turk said.

Mills' sister, Sandy Mills, said she believed the judge was on their side, but still was disappointed in the outcome.

"It's not right that he's being penalized again for something he did 15 years ago," she said of her brother.

John Brownlee, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, had argued that Mills, who was convicted of aggravated sexual battery of minors three times in the 1980s and '90s, should stay in prison on this latest charge until he is in his 70s.

On Mills' prior convictions, judges opted to sentence him primarily to treatment and probation, ordering him to serve only 20 weekends in jail. One of Mills' former victims said Tuesday that he was just happy to finally testify against Mills and see him get significant time.

"At least he had to sit and look at me," said Daniel LaTempa. "I wouldn't trade this for nothing."

Mills' prior convictions came in Roanoke in 1984 and in Montgomery County in 1992. The first case involved LaTempa and another boy, who were molested while Mills was their mentor through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Virginia.

LaTempa was not able to testify against Mills in 1984, so when he saw that Mills had been arrested again, he asked to testify.

"I knew back then that my voice hadn't been heard, and I know this time, whether it makes a difference or not, my voice will be heard," he said.

Mills was arrested in 2004 after a postal inspector posing as a mailman delivered the child pornography to his house. He pleaded guilty in May.

Isaac Van Patten, chairman of the criminal justice department at Radford University, testified Tuesday that watching child pornography is the first rung on a ladder to molesting again.

As director of the Roanoke Area Sex Offender Program for 13 years, Van Patten once evaluated Mills. He testified that Mills is a "preferential offender," or one whose primary sexual orientation is toward boys ages 8 to 12.

"Would an individual who was cured and on the right track be masturbating to images of child pornography in 2004, after your treatment program?" asked assistant prosecutor Pat Hogeboom.

"No," answered Van Patten.

In his closing comments, Brownlee told Turk that someone would get a life sentence on Tuesday, and that the prosecution hoped it was Mills, a three-time convicted sex offender, rather than some future victim of his.

But defense attorney Tony Anderson argued that no evidence existed that Mills had molested again since 1992, or that he ever would.

In the end, Turk said he felt the sentence of 15 years in prison and 72 months of supervised release was a strict one for the crime in question.

Sandy Mills said she was not looking forward to telling her aging mother and aunts that they may be gone before Dennis Mills gets out of prison.

For LaTempa, though, the prospect of Mills being an old man before he hits the streets again was a comfort.

"I get to go home," he said, "and he gets to sit in that cell."