COVINGTON, Ga. - A 24-year-old Stockbridge man will spend the next ten years in a Georgia prison after pleading guilty to statutory rape and child molestation charges in Newton County Superior Court Tuesday morning.

Toren James Galardi had been in the Newton County jail since his arrest by Covington police nearly a year ago. Galardi was taken into custody just past 12:30 a.m. June 15, 2017 after a CPD officer checking on an occupied suspicious vehicle parked behind an Access Road restaurant found him with an underage girl.

According to evidence presented in court, both were wearing only their underwear when found by police. Both reportedly admitted that they had had sex in Galardi’s Ford Taurus.

The teen reportedly told authorities that she had met Galardi on a dating app and that they had communicated via social media for a few days before he picked her up for the encounter.

After the plea, Alcovy Circuit Judge John Ott sentenced Galardi to 30 years with 10 to be served in confinement.  Once he is released, he will not be allowed any unsupervised contact with children under 16 years of age.