The Kennebec Journal reported (http://bit.ly/214hKK0 ) 46-year-old David Morissette, of Winslow, pleaded no contest to two charges of unlawful sexual contact. He was found guilty by a judge Monday and was sentenced on one of those counts to serve four years in prison.

He received a fully suspended five-year sentence followed by probation on the second charge.

Authorities said the former Lawrence High School teacher sexually assaulted two female relatives under the age of 14. They said the assaults happened between October 2001 and March 2012.

Morissette’s lawyer says his client accepted the sentence of the court in order to spare his family and himself the “risks of a trial.”