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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A former day care worker convicted of abducting a 5-year-old girl from her Philadelphia kindergarten classroom and sexually assaulting her has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.
Prosecutors believe 22-year-old Christina Regusters donned a Muslim dress and veil to impersonate the girl's mother and take her from the public school classroom in January 2013.
Regusters apologized Monday but said she is not a "monster." She says her only role was taking the child from unnamed people and leaving her half-naked at a playground.
The child told the judge, "I think what she did to me was wrong, and I think she shouldn't do it to anyone else." The Associated Press doesn't identify victims of sexual abuse.
Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart calls the crime "a horror show."
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This story has been corrected to say Regusters admits taking the child from unnamed people, not from the school.
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