Modesto man convicted of child sex abuse called a ‘monster’

One of Jeffrey Gene Anderson’s victims called him a monster who preyed on three children who have to live with the lasting effects of sexual abuse.

The victim told a Stanislaus Superior Court judge on Thursday that Anderson raped her. The woman, standing a few feet away from the man who sexually assaulted her, said the repeated abuse she suffered as a child has left her with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“He attempted to teach me that what he was doing was okay,” she said in court standing next to “Honor,” a trained assistance dog provided by the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office to comfort witnesses and victims.

She said she no longer trusts men, feeling like she can never love a man or be loved. She said just hearing the name “Jeff” or “Jeffrey” makes her shiver.

The victims were given an opportunity to speak in court before Anderson, 48, of Modesto, was formally sentenced to 24 years in prison for sexually abusing two girls and a boy over two decades.

The woman, identified in court as “Jane Doe 1,” said 24 years in prison will not give her back what Anderson stole from her. But his prison sentence gives her some solace, she said, knowing Anderson will never do this to another boy or girl again.

The abuse occurred in Amador County in Ione starting in the early 1990s and continued in Stanislaus County in Ceres and Modesto. The victims were related to Anderson.

Judge Shawn Bessey said the sex abuse described has produced the type of emotional scars the victims will have to live with for the rest of their lives. He said the 24-year prison sentencing he was imposing is what was agreed upon by the prosecution and the defense, but it’s not enough in the minds of many.

Anderson was scheduled to go trial this week but agreed to a plea deal, said Deputy District Attorney Merrill Hoult, who prosecuted the case. Anderson pleaded no contest to three counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child.

Judge Bessey ordered Anderson to register with authorities as a sex offender for the rest of his life. The defendant has already served about five years of his sentence while in custody at the county jail.

The Modesto Police Department Special Victims Unit started investigating Anderson in May 2012, when a teen believed to have been a victim started posting information on social media alluding to her abuse.

The teenager attempted suicide and then confided in counselors at her church and a volunteer at a suicide prevention hot line that she had been molested from the time she was a child until she was 14, according to Modesto police.

At the same time, others believed to have been victims who knew the girl and learned of detectives’ involvement in her case came forward to police.

One of the other victims testified in Anderson’s preliminary hearing in June 2014 the the defendant was her baby sitter. She said in court he sexually abused her when she was from 4 to 8 years old.

She testified that Anderson sexually molested her more than 30 times. “He told me that if I ever told anybody, he would kill me and my family,” she said in court about the defendant.

The mother of Jane Doe 1 and John Doe, the boy sexually abused by Anderson, wrote a letter to the judge the prosecutor read in court. She says Anderson destroyed her family, and he’s solely responsible.

She wrote that the day police launched their investigation of the defendant is “the day I found out that Jeff Anderson is a monster.”

This story was originally published October 12, 2017 at 3:33 PM with the headline "Modesto man convicted of child sex abuse called a ‘monster’."