CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Marine Staff Sgt. Craig H. Embry was sentenced to 35 years in prison Tuesday for molesting a 10-year-old girl over a two-year period.

Embry, 30, pleaded guilty to charges of attempted rape, forcible sodomy and committing indecent acts from Jan. 19, 2003, through Feb. 20.

Under the terms of a pretrial plea agreement, 15 years of the sentence are to be suspended for one year after he completes a 20-year prison term. Lt. Col. D.J. Daugherty, the presiding judge, also reduced Embry to the rank of E-1 and ordered a dishonorable discharge.

Embry, a former drill instructor, sobbed frequently throughout the six-hour court-martial in Keystone Judicial Circuit Court, wringing a handkerchief and occasionally wiping tears from his face. His shook uncontrollably as he admitted to the charges.

According to trial testimony, which included a 30-minute video of the girl’s interview with a social worker, the molestation came to light after the girl finally found the courage to tell her mother.

“He does it every time he gets the chance,” she told the social worker. She said she was so afraid of him that she would sometimes hide. “But he always found me.”

She said he offered her gifts if she remained quiet.

Embry was arrested by military police on Feb. 23. The girl’s 27-year-old mother said her daughter has changed markedly since then.

“She’s a lot better,” she said. “She used to keep to herself and dress all in dark colors. Now she’s into bright colors, pretty colors.”

During questioning by his civilian defense attorney, Neal A. Puckett, Embry, who joined the Marine Corps eight years ago, said he had been molested as a child, first by a stepfather and then by a math tutor when he was about 11 years old.

However, he said he didn’t blame those men for his own offenses.

“Then how could you do that to her?” Puckett asked.

“I don’t know, sir,” Embry sobbed, attempting to stand ramrod straight while his whole body trembled. “I feel like crap about it, I shouldn’t be called a human being.”

Puckett asked for a prison sentence of eight years, which would have allowed Embry to serve his time at a military prison in Miramar, Calif., that has a two-year program for pedophiles. A longer sentence, however, will send him to the maximum-security prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Maj. Keith Parrella, the prosecutor, sought a 25- to 30-year sentence.

“She was treated like she was nothing more than his property, his chattel,” Parrella said. “He violated her trust in the most heinous possible way.”