AUGUSTA — An Augusta man with prior convictions for sexual abuse of a minor was sentenced Monday to nine months behind bars after pleading guilty to two counts of possessing child sexual abuse materials involving children less than 12 years old.

Dexter G. Newbury was charged with 10 counts of possession of sexually explicit materials of a minor under 12 years old last year by Augusta police. Police found 46 such images on three electronic devices that police, acting on a search warrant, seized from Newbury’s home. The search took place in 2019, after law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received information from an electronic service provider that was traced back to Newbury.

In April he pleaded guilty to two of those counts, in a plea agreement with prosecutors in which the other eight counts were dismissed. His sentence was capped at a maximum of 24 months.

Superior Court Justice Daniel Mitchell sentenced Newbury to consecutive, five-year sentences on each of the pornography charges, but with all but nine months of the 10-year sentence suspended, and two years probation. If he complies with the terms of his probation, Newbury would serve just nine months in county jail. But if he violates his probation conditions, he could be sentenced to serve more than nine years remaining on his sentence in prison.

Newbury, his lawyer Walter McKee said, has struggled for years with attraction to underage minors which “has been a terrible affliction and has caused him to be convicted and serve prior sentences for sexual contact with minors.”

In 2004, Newbury was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of sexual abuse of a minor in Somerset County and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. While serving that sentence he was also convicted of another sexual abuse of a minor charge, this time as a Class C felony, in Kennebec County, for which he was sentenced to four more years and 11 months in prison.

McKee said Newbury’s lawyer in the 2006 Kennebec County case advised Newbury he should not go on probation, advice which Newbury followed. McKee said Newbury could have received a split sentence in that case, gone on probation, and received sex offender counseling as a requirement of his probation, but did not. Newbury has never been ordered to undergo sex offender counseling, something that was part of the sentence he received Monday as a condition of his two-year probation, McKee said.

“Dexter fully and completely accepts the fact that he committed the crimes in both cases, but it is striking that to this day Dexter has never been ordered to receive sex offender counseling, and it is a reasonable assumption that had Dexter received that counseling he may well have been successful and not engaged in the conduct that brought him before the court today,” McKee said in his sentencing memo.

McKee said there was no evidence he disseminated or created any of the child sexual abuse materials.

Newbury, 63, has a home in Augusta, is married, and has three adult children, and four adult stepchildren.

“I’m very ashamed for what I’ve done and I feel terrible for the shame I’ve brought my family,” Newbury said in court, noting he takes full responsibility for his crimes.

Prosecutor Michael Madigan, an assistant district attorney, sought two years of prison time for Newbury.

“Given the conduct, the nature of the images, and the information obtained from the computers, the state’s perspective is anything less than a two-year sentence will diminish” the severity of the offense, Madigan argued.

McKee said Newbury has had significant health issues in the past several years, including being diagnosed with prostate cancer, for which he still undergoes treatment. That treatment includes receiving shots, every three months, of female hormones meant to help control his testosterone levels which, if they get too high, can fuel his prostate cancer. McKee said Newbury has “zero sex drive as a result of the female hormones … and the likelihood that Dexter will ever be involved in crimes like this ever again is highly limited to say the least.”

McKee said the Kennebec County Correctional Facility would facilitate Newbury’s continued injections of the hormones as part of his treatment, but said it is unclear whether the state Department of Corrections would do so.

Newbury entered the U.S. Navy a year after graduating high school, serving three years and another three in the reserves. He was honorably discharged and had careers in finance, insurance, mortgages and as an inventory manager.

Mitchell said a nine-month sentence is sufficient to both punish Newbury and not minimize his crime, while recognizing his individual circumstances, including his health needs.