AUGUSTA (AP) – The former head of Maine’s English-as-a-second-language program was handed a 90-day jail term for sexually molesting two 10-year-old boys at a summer camp in Massachusetts more than 30 years ago.

Bernard “Barney” Berube, 59, of Augusta was sentenced Friday in Superior Court in Berkshire, Mass., to two years in jail, with all but 90 days suspended, and five years of probation.

Berube, who sobbed as he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs and shackles, had pleaded no contest a week earlier to two charges of indecent assault and battery on a child younger than 14.

The assaults occurred in the summer of 1976 while Berube was a counselor at Camp Mahkeenac in Stockbridge, Mass. He allegedly used candy to lure the boys into his office and onto his lap after they signed up to work for the camp newsletter.

Years later, the victims met at college and compared notes. One of them, now an attorney in Massachusetts, hired a private investigator to find Berube.

A year after the camp incidents, Berube was arrested in Norwalk, Conn., after a woman reported that he had sexually molested her 9-year-old son. Berube, then 29, and living in Westport, Conn., pleaded no contest to sexual assault and was ordered to resign as a teacher, leave the state and seek medical help.

The only Maine charge against Berube involved a theft in 1980 while he was living in Bowdoinham, according to Kennebec County District Attorney Evert Fowle. Berube was fined $200.

Berube, who holds a doctorate in bilingual education, was employed by the Maine Department of Education from 1978 until last February, primarily working with teachers on bilingual curriculum.

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Information from: Kennebec Journal, http://www.kjonline.com/