A New York judge said it was inappropriate to imprison a 20-year-old who admitted to sexual abuse, including rape, of teens

• Christopher Belter, 20, admitted to sexual abuse, including rape, of teenagers in 2019.
• A judge gave him eight years' probation Tuesday and said prison "isn't appropriate," ABC7 reported.

A New York judge said it was "inappropriate" to imprison a 20-year-old man who pleaded guilty to raping at least one teen girl several years ago, ABC7 reported.

In late 2018, Christopher Belter, then 17, was charged with first degree rape, third degree rape, and sexual abuse involving four girls aged between 15 and 16 at his family home in Lewiston, near Niagara Falls, between January 2017 and August 2018, ABC7 reported.

State police previously said that Belter's family considered the house a "party house," and accused Belter's family and family friends of providing guests, including minors, with alcohol and marijuana, Buffalo News reported.

In 2019, Belter pleaded guilty to two counts of second degree sex abuse, third degree attempted abuse, and third degree rape, and received a sentence of two years' interim probation, ABC7 reported. The outlet previously reported that Belter confessed to multiple counts of rape, but it was unclear what specific charges he pleaded guilty to or how many of the girls this pertained to.

On Tuesday, Niagara County Judge Matthew Murphy concluded that Belter, now 20, should be sentenced to eight years of probation and must register as a sex offender, ABC 7 said.

Belter was given no prison time.

"I agonized — I'm not ashamed to say that I actually prayed over what is the appropriate sentence in this case. because there was great pain. There was great harm — there were multiple crimes committed in the case," Murphy said, ABC7 reported.

"It seems to me that a sentence that involves incarceration or partial incarceration isn't appropriate, so I am going to sentence you to probation."

Murphy had previously said that one of the teenage girls gave a "gripping statement" describing how she had to focus on a plant to distract herself while being raped, Buffalo News said.

"During the rape, he told her to stop being such a baby. She focused her attention on the leaves of the plant as she cried during the attack," Murphy said of the statement, according to Buffalo News.

"The Defendant told her that, if she stopped resisting, it wouldn't hurt as much."

Eileen Buckley, an ABC7 reporter, tweeted Tuesday that an accuser sitting in the courtroom was "clearly upset by [the] sentence."

Steve Cohen, an attorney for one of the accusers, told ABC7: "I am deeply, deeply disappointed. I expected a different outcome today."

"He is privileged. He comes from money. He is white. He was sentenced as an adult, appropriately — for an adult to get away with these crimes is unjust," Cohen said of Belter.

As part of his probation, Belter has to live with parents, have no contact with anyone under 18, conduct no overnight trips, and submit to random polygraph and drug tests, ABC7 reported.