Massachusetts man, 48, who raped two boys aged six and nine before going on the run for more than two decades is jailed for just 14 years

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A convicted child rapist who evaded justice for 23 years before his arrest in 2016 heard from his victims in a Boston courtroom on Tuesday, where he was sentenced to between 12 and 14 years in prison.

'When I was a 6-year-old little boy, you took everything from me,' one victim told John Joseph Hartin, 48, on Tuesday.

Fighting tears, the victim said: 'You robbed me of my innocence.'

Hartin's two victims read statements in court at his sentencing on Tuesday, according to the Boston Herald. 

John Joseph Hartin, 48, is convicted child rapist who evaded justice for 23 years before his arrest in 2016. He is seen above after his sentencing on Tuesday in a Boston courtroom

Hartin heard from his two victims who were 6 and 9 years of age at the time of his crimes

Fighting tears, one of his victims told him: 'You robbed me of my innocence'

One of the victims thanked the jury for convicting Hartin and '[making sure] one more sicko is off the street.' 

In her statements to the judge, Assistant District Attorney Alissa Goldhaber said that two boys ages 6 and 9 at the time were 'brutally raped by this defendant repeatedly at times when they were alone, at times when they were together, having to wait their turn — knowing they were next.'

Hartin, a native of the Dorchester section of Boston, was convicted of five counts of child rape.

He was first indicted for his crimes in 1993, but he fled.

For 23 years, he was living in North Carolina and Florida under an alias - Jay Matthew Carter.

Hartin was arrested by the FBI in North Carolina in 2016.

In 2012, the FBI tried to track Hartin down by running a multi-state media campaign and offering $25,000 for information leading to his arrest.

He was arrested without incident and extradited back to Massachusetts to face trial.

'John Hartin thought by changing his name and moving out of state, he could avoid prosecution,' Harold Shaw, the special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston, said in the statement. 

'However, he underestimated our resolve to track him down. The FBI hopes the victims of this alleged crimes will find some comfort in knowing that he will now have to answer for his actions.'

'I never thought he was going to be caught,' one of the victims told the Herald. 

'I really didn’t...I’ve ran from this my whole life.' 

The image above shows an FBI notice asking for the public's help in tracking him down. He was arrested by authorities in 2016 after he was found in North Carolina

The victim said that the trauma he suffered at Hartin's hands destroyed his life. Since the rape, the victim said he's been estranged from his mother and he's been wrestling with drug abuse.

'I let it ruin my life for a long time, and I shouldn’t have,' he said.

The victim called Hartin a coward for refusing to make eye contact with him in court.

Instead, Hartin kept his head down and scribbled on a sheet of paper while the victim spoke.