MARION COUNTY — A 17-year-old Salem man was sentenced Wednesday to more than 22 years in prison after he earlier pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an infant girl in his mother’s care.

Judge Allan Lolie sentenced Justin Atteberry to 22 1/2 years after a victim’s impact statement was read in open court and after Atteberry addressed the court with his statement of allocution.

Atteberry was charged in December 2015 with Class X felony aggravated criminal sexual assault resulting in bodily harm, after Salem police and the Department of Children and Family Services conducted an investigation into injuries that sent the baby girl first to Salem Township Hospital and then to Children’s Hospital in St. Louis.

According to court information, Atteberry’s mother was an at-home childcare provider in Salem, and the victim was one of her clients.

Atteberry admitted during a videotaped interview to performing acts on the baby using a Matchbox type car that resulted in the injuries noted at the hospitals.

Although Atteberry was only 15-years-old at the time of the incident, he had to be charged as an adult based upon the Juvenile Court Act requirements.

In August 2016 Atteberry filed an open plea of guilty to the Class X charge. An open plea does not provide the defendant with guaranteed sentence limits.

A Class X felony is punishable by between 6 and 30 years in prison. In addition to the prison sentence, Atteberry will have to serve 3 years to life mandatory supervised release after completing his prison term.

He will have to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence but was given credit for 394 days served in jail since his 2015 arrest.