Fairbanks man gets 50 years for sexual abuse

FAIRBANKS - A Fairbanks man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after admitting he sexually abused a girl for seven years.

A judge sentenced 39-year-old Joseph Turney on Monday for his earlier guilty pleas to sexual abuse of a minor and sexual assault.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported the pleas entered in February consolidated 20 charges. Turney was also accused of fathering a child during the abuse.

Turney had been employed as a Fairbanks North Star Borough School District bus driver since 2004 through First Student. The Cincinnati-based bus company suspended Turney following his arrest and said it had received no complaints about him.

Turney had no criminal history before his January 2009 arrest.