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Former nanny in Florida who gave birth to 11-year-old's child sentenced to 20 years in prison

TAMPA, Fla. — A former live-in nanny in Florida was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy and then giving birth to the boy's son.

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Marissa Mowry, 28, was sentenced in a Hillsborough County court Wednesday after she pleaded guilty to charges she sexually battered the child she was supervising as a nanny, WFLA reported. She must also complete 10 years of sex offender probation after she is released from prison, the television station reported.

The victim, now 17, sat in court as the sentence was read. According to prosecutors, the boy was 11 and Mowry was 22 when the abuse began, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Investigator said Mowry had at least 14 sexual encounters with the victim by the time he was 12, according to WFLA. In the fall of 2014, she gave birth to his child, the Times reported. It took three years before the victim said he had the courage to tell his mother what happened, the newspaper reported.

Mowry has been in jail since 2017, according to WFLA.

Mowry's attorney said the defendant had been a victim of an abusive childhood and was homeless for a while, the Times reported. Mowry earned her high school diploma while she was in jail.

After the hearing, the victim's mother said Mowry's past was no excuse for the abuse of her son.

"We're talking about a child that was 11," Nadean Campbell told the Times. "Not even a teenager. Eleven."

The family hired Mowry to be a nanny for their son at their Pasco County home in January 2014. She was recommended by Campbell's sister-in-law, who had also employed her, the Times reported.

When Mowry gave birth to a boy, they believed the father of the child was her boyfriend.

In 2017, after her son told her what happened, Campbell reported Mowry to authorities, the Times reported. A DNA test later confirmed the boy was the father of the nanny's child. the newspaper reported.

The victim and his parents are raising the child, BayNews 9 reported.

"One thing I do not want him to ever think is that he is predestined to have issues because of this," Campbell told the television news station. "Because it takes two parents and his other one is really awesome."