YOUNGSTOWN — A Beaver Township man was sentenced to four-to-six years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to the rape of a woman with whom he had been friends for 30 years.

“She’s such a great friend. I’ve known her for over three decades. We became friends again for the last three years. We ate dinner together. We watched movies together,” Robert O. Cox, 64, of Calla Road, told Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Cox offered the victim “my deepest apologies.”

Beaver Township police said they were called to Cox’s home at 1:34 a.m. July 16 and met with the victim in her vehicle in the driveway. She said she went to Cox’s house because he was her friend. When she said she was unsure of how to get home due to various road closures, Cox offered for her to stay on his couch, she said.

The report states when she was on the couch, Cox approached her and started grabbing her and forced oral sex. She said Cox “pounced” on her and she tried fighting him off by punching and biting him, the report states.

Police entered the home and found Cox inside and he admitted to the rape. “I did it,” the report states Cox said.

He told police the woman came to his residence around 8 p.m. the night before and the two drank wine. He also told police he forced himself on the woman.

The report states Cox was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital where he said: “I’m really sorry. I ruined a lot of people’s lives by doing what I did. I should have never done that.”

The victim did not speak during the hearing, but Caitlyn Andrews, assistant prosecutor, confirmed that the two had been friends for three decades, but the relationship was not sexual.

The prosecution and defense mutually agreed to the four-to-six-year sentence, and the victim also approved it, Andrews said.

Durkin said he would approve the recommended sentence because the lawyers in the case “know the case far better than I do” and Cox showed remorse.

The judge said Cox will be on probation five years after he leaves prison and is ordered to have no contact with the victim. His conviction makes him a tier-3 sex offender, requiring him to register with the sheriff’s office where lives after he leaves prison every 90 days for life.

One of Cox’s attorneys, James Gentile, told Durkin it’s hard to know what caused Cox to commit these crimes other than Cox had a relapse in his abuse of alcohol a short time before the crimes.

“That’s the only way we can explain this horrific behavior he had that night because he’s not that kind of guy,” Gentile said.

Cox has no prior criminal history and enlisted in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam era, Gentile noted.

Cox gets credit for 126 days spent in the Mahoning County jail awaiting trial.