WBRZ - Baton Rouge

A Ragley man has been sentenced to five years on a sexual assault charge involving a girl who was 3 years old at the time.

Robert Williams Bell had been charged with sexual battery and aggravated rape, though he was convicted on a lesser count of attempted sexual battery.

Bell was acquitted on the rape count, which would have carried a mandatory life sentence.

Bell was accused of having oral sexual contact with the child on one occasion and fondling her several other times, between 1997 and 2003.