Appeals Court Upholds NJ Handyman's Conviction

FREEHOLD, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- An appeals court has upheld the conviction and 80-year prison sentence of a New Jersey handyman who videotaped his repeated sexual assaults of a client's daughter.

The court found the judge in Monmouth County did not commit any errors and the sentence given Clement Bilski Jr. was not excessive.

The 48-year-old was convicted in 2008 of 143 counts stemming from the sexual assault of the girl between 1998, when she was 2, and 2003, when she was 7.

Investigators found evidence of hidden cameras in the girl's bathroom and bedroom, which Bilski had remodeled.

Bilski argued the judge should not have given him a consecutive sentence.

The Star-Ledger of Newark reports the court said to run the sentences concurrently would make Bilski "indistinguishable from an offender who assaulted his victim only once.''

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