Ex-principal gets 18 years in prison for sex abuse

More details emerged in a sex abuse case Monday when a former junior high principal was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Christopher Cox, 39, had pleaded guilty to one of three counts of sexual abuse of a minor child under 16 last month, admitting in court to “having touched the young lady’s breasts.”

He was charged in January, and resigned from his post at Snake River Junior High School in Blackfoot in February. Cox had pleaded guilty to the one count as part of a nonbinding plea agreement.

A presentence investigation revealed the reason Cox was in contact with the victim in the first place: The girl had come to him to confide in him about sexual abuse she had experienced from a much older man.

District Judge Greg Moeller said many of the answers Cox had given in a psychosexual evaluation suggested he blamed the victim.

The prosecution has said the encounters occurred on school property and at the 14-year-old’s home. The student now lives in Wyoming. Neither she nor her family were in court for the sentencing.

Moeller said Cox had lived a double life for many years.

“You need to understand that all of these consequences are the logical and just results for choices you have made,” said Moeller to Cox on Monday.

Cox will be eligible for a parole board to review his case in three years.

“I hope these people can forgive me someday,” Cox told Moeller. “I am prepared to take full consequences for what I’ve done, and I will submit to your judgment.”