HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – A former Peace Corps volunteer has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing young girls while serving in South Africa. Jesse Osmun, of Milford, Conn., apologized to the victims, his family and the Peace Corps at the hearing Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Hartford.

Osmun pleaded guilty in June to traveling from the United States to engage in illicit sexual conduct with children. He abused four girls between the ages of 3 and 6 at a center for people affected by AIDS in South Africa.

Osmun resigned from the Peace Corps in May 2011. He said he struggles with feelings of shame and guilt. He said: “I sometimes wish I could take my brain out and wash it of all the memories I have.”