“You are nothing but a liar. A sick man,” wrote the girl.

The girl continued to contemplate suicide after the sexual abuse, also because it seemed like people at school would talk about it every time she walked into a room, she said.

The girl’s mother said Perkins hunted her daughter at a difficult time after she lost custody and her daughter was placed in foster care.

“My hands were tied,” she said. “This man robbed my daughter of her innocence.”

Perkins said he became depressed after his wife’s two “unplanned” pregnancies.

His wife is an independent woman, and he deepened into depression after starting her own wellness business because he wanted to be someone’s “rock,” he said.

He started chasing the girl because he felt needed working with her, he said.

After his arrest, he went to counseling and learned that he used sex as a coping mechanism, he said.

He and his wife went to marriage counseling and their forgiveness gave him meaning in life, he said.

He apologized to the girl and her family, but then burst into tears as he thanked his family for not “leaving” him.

Perkins attorney Christopher Eskew said Perkins deserved indulgence because he had no criminal record and did not force the girl to be questioned by lawyers or to testify in court.