Robertsdale resident Raymond Charles Styron, whose address was listed as 21621 County Road 64, was sentenced last week to eight life sentences plus 40 years for crimes that involved the sexual abuse of an 8-year-old boy and girl by Baldwin County Circuit Judge Charles Partin. Prosecutors allege that the abuse has been going on for three years in the case of the girl, and for about a year in the case of the boy.

Styron was found guilty of the charges by a jury in April. The charges included sexual torture, rape and sodomy. Styron is related to both children.

Styron’s attorney, James Sweet, argued that his client did not have criminal record and did cooperate with prosecutors.

Styron will serve the sentences for harming each child concurrently. However, a court official says that the total sentences in both cases must be served one after the other. The result is that Styron will have to serve at least two life sentences.

For the girl, Styron was found guilty of two counts of first-degree sodomy, one count of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, and one count of sexual torture. For the young man, he was convicted of first-degree sodomy, two counts of sexual abuse and one count of torture.

On June 11, the children’s maternal grandmother testified that the girl requires counseling, is emotionally withdrawn and is on medicine for anxiety. The boy, she says, is doing poorly in school and fears that Styron will be released from prison.

Styron’s sister, Mary Wilson, a Georgia resident, testified that Styron’s maternal grandfather murdered their father in front of their mother. Their mother eventually married a man that she said abused Styron mentally and physically. Still, Wilson described her brother as kind and giving and had trouble seeing how he could have harmed two children.

Styron told the family he regretted that the incidents happened.