Lisle man gets 7 years for molestation

A Lisle man was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison for molesting a 7-year-old child in his care.

Fernando J. Bandera must serve 85 percent of the prison term before being eligible for parole.

The 20-year-old man pleaded guilty during an earlier court hearing to sexually assaulting the child last July in an apartment on Keller Street in Lisle.

Authorities said Bandera was left alone with the girl for a short time while the child's mother picked up her husband from work. The parents immediately called police after they said she told them what happened when they inquired why she still was up at 2 a.m.

Bandera faced six to 13 years in prison as part of a partial plea deal. Prosecutor Joseph Lindt argued Bandera deserved the maximum since, "what the defendant is charged with is one of the worst things a defendant can do to a child."

George Ford, a senior DuPage County assistant public defender, asked for a minimum term. He argued Bandera lacked a prior criminal history and has shown true remorse from the onset by cooperating with police and, later, pleading guilty rather than putting the family through an emotional trial.

Bandera apologized Thursday before DuPage Circuit Judge Peter J. Dockery sentenced him. Bandera came to the U.S. from Mexico just a few months before the crime to help support his family back in his native country. He had two jobs at fast food restaurants.

"I am very sorry for what I did," he said through a Spanish interpreter. "I know what I did was wrong. I just ask for an opportunity to show I'm not that kind of person.