GONZALES — A Prairieville man was sentenced to life plus 99 years in prison following a conviction on multiple child sex crime charges in Ascension Parish on Monday.

Joshua Bleakley, 43, was sentenced by Ad-Hoc Judge John LeBlanc to life in prison for first-degree rape of a victim under 13 years old. He received an additional 99-year sentence for 14 counts of aggravated crimes against nature, to be served concurrently with each other but consecutively to the life sentence.

Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Deputies began investigating in April 2019 when they received a complaint at the courthouse concerning a 13-year-old female being sexually assaulted by Bleakley.

Following interviews with detectives, Bleakley provided a confession to the allegations and was booked into the Ascension Parish Jail.

An Ascension Parish jury found Bleakley guilty on all charges on July 23 of this year; however, sentencing was deferred to a later date following a pre-sentence investigation. His sentences were formally handed down Monday in the 23rd Judicial District Court in Gonzales.