A Riverside man was sentenced to prison for sexual abuse last week.

Washington County Attorney John Gish states that 33-year-old Andrew Swailes was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for third-degree sexual abuse, a class C felony. He was found guilty by a jury last November for an April 2020 incident. He sexually abused a 15-year-old girl after providing her with alcohol to the point of where she became heavily intoxicated, and during the trial he claimed that the victim was to blame for the sex act. Swailes requested a deferred judgment and probation at the sentencing hearing. District Court Judge Shawn R. Showers ordered prison, telling Swailes, “A 31-year-old man does not get taken advantage of by a 15-year-old girl that is blacking out.”  Gish points out that under Iowa’s indeterminate sentencing laws, the Iowa Board of Parole decides when inmates are released from prison. According to the Board’s Fiscal Year 2021 Report, defendants sentenced to prison under this type of crime serve an average of just 41 months of the 120-month sentence.