WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former worker at the Wichita YMCA was sentenced to 27½ years in prison for sexually assaulting two young children.

Twenty-two-year-old 22-year-old Caleb Gaston was sentenced Friday. He pleaded no contest in February to two counts of rape.

Authorities say in January 2018, Gaston sexually abused a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old in his care at the YMCA branch’s Kid Zone. Police arrested him after the 4-year-old girl reported that he had hit her and then touched her inappropriately.

Before sentencing, Gaston apologized and said he had never had legal troubles until he became convicted to drugs.

Before the YMCA incidents, Gaston was fired from another day care job after complaints he had inappropriately touched children. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment couldn’t substantiate the allegation.