A 29-year-old man has been sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting a child. The Pennington County State’s Attorney’s Office reports that 29-year-old Ian Hoffman entered Alford pleas to two counts of Sexual Contact in February.

Now, he has received a 15-year-old sentence for each of the two counts. The sentence will run concurrently. Since Hoffman entered an Alford plea, he admitted that the state had enough evidence to convict, but he maintained his innocence.

Senior Deputy State’s Attorney Roxanne Hammond said during sentencing that Hoffman was a master manipulator who groomed the child. She claimed Hoffman started by tickling the child until his actions escalated and became more sinister.

A Grand Jury originally charged Hoffman with one count of First-Degree Rape Against a Child Under 13 and one count of Sexual Contact Against a Child under 16 on July 21, 2021. The rape charge was dismissed in exchange for Hoffman’s guilty plea to two counts of sexual contact.