A Delaware judge sentenced pediatrician Melvin L. Morse to at least three years in prison after being convicted on Feb. 13 of waterboarding his 11-year-old stepdaughter in 2012.

Melvin was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday, but Superior Court Judge Richard F. Stokes said that Melvin could be placed on probation after serving three years of his term. The father, who left the courtroom in handcuffs, is being treated for prostate cancer, but Judge Stokes denied Melvin's attorney's request for a later sentence, USA Today reported.

Melvin's daughter told police in August 2012 that she ran away from home because he had forced her head under running water to make her believe that she was drowning. Melvin pleaded not guilty while also testifying in his defense during the January trial. However, after a deliberating for six hours, the jury found Morse guilty on six counts of offense, one of which was first-degree reckless endangerment, according to USA Today.

Pauline Morse, the girl's mother, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor endangerment charges last year and testified against Melvin.

Pauline and Melvin have one child together. Both Pauline and her daughter, now 12, testified in court that Melvin favored this younger daughter. They also said that Melvin would threaten the use of waterboarding as punishment and regularly delivered harsh forms of punishment to the girl at random moments. The girl's attorney also argued that Melvin would punish the girl by forcing her to stand with her arms stretched out for hours at a time or would keep her confined in her bedroom without giving her food. Melvin's defense attorney argued that he used the term "waterboarding" as a joke to describe him washing the girl's hair, which she did not like, according to USA Today.

During the course of the case, numerous trial dates were pushed back several times because of last year's snowstorms.

Melvin's two daughtershave been in foster care but were allowed supervised visits with Pauline.

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