A Manheim Township man will serve up to 63 years in prison for years of abuse of two girls, behavior that the sentencing judge called “disgusting and evil.”
Geoffrey Bussard was sentenced Friday to 29½ to 63 years regarding his trial conviction on 18 charges – a year after Bussard was sentenced regarding the drowning death of his 3-year-old daughter.
Assistant District Attorney Amy Muller pointed out that Bussard, as she expected, showed no remorse for his crimes or for having the girls testify in front of a jury of the many acts he perpetrated on them.
When Lancaster County Judge Howard Knisely asked Bussard for comment, Bussard said, “No, um, not really.”
Bussard, 47, did verbalize his intention to appeal and his displeasure with a psychiatric board classifying him a “sexually violent predator.”
“I don’t think he can ever be referred to as a man,” ADA Muller said, glaring at Bussard as he leaned on a podium where he stood for sentencing. “Because a man would never” sexually abuse pre-teenage girls in numerous ways for numerous years.
Bussard abused the girls, who are best friends, beginning in 2006 when one girl was 5 years old.
One girl’s grandmother told the judge that Bussard “terrorized and corrupted” the victims with a “shameful balance of evil and perversion.”
Her granddaughter, however, “will find her way in this world, in spite of,” the woman said.
Judge Knisely scolded Bussard for his “lust and perversion towards sex with little girls” and for his lack of concern or remorse about the impact on the victims.
Manheim Township police Detective Sarah Goss led the investigation and filed charges.
At the time of trial last October, Bussard was on probation for endangerment in connection with his 3-year-old daughter’s drowning death in 2017.
The girl, unsupervised, wondered out of a Farmstead Lane home and into the family’s swimming pool – while both of her parents slept inside.
MEDIA CONTACT: Brett A. Hambright, 717-295-2041; bhambright@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @BrettHambright