YOUNGSTOWN — A man convicted of sexual abuse involving a juvenile will serve five years in prison.

Thomas Steele, 50, of Campbell was convicted March 12 on three felony counts of gross sexual imposition as well as a charge of pandering obscenity.

He was sentenced Thursday before Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John Durkin, who called the victim’s testimony about the incident “especially troubling.”

Steele has maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings against him, but the victim — a young girl, told the jury about how Steele touched her private areas on at least two occasions in 2018, while they were playing hide-and-seek. On another occasion, the girl told police, Steele was watching pornography on his computer and showed her what he was watching.

Steele was arrested in Campbell in August 2024 on warrants.

When police arrived at a relative’s house, the report states, the woman who answered the door said Steele was in the basement, but after police yelled down to him and identified themselves, he tried to say he was someone else and told police that Steele had left. They eventually convinced him to come upstairs and arrested him without incident.

The report states that the girl’s mother brought her into the station on July 5, 2023, a couple of days after the child told her about what Steele had done.

Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro praised assistant prosecuting attorneys Daniel Yozwiak and Melissa Dinsio, as well as the investigation of Campbell police, in securing the conviction.