NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — A young Kenyan man who followed three young girls from a funeral to a church and locked them inside to sexually abuse them, was sentenced to 100 years in jail Wednesday.

Harrison Kinyua, aged 20, was handed the sentence by a court in the central town of Embu after pleading guilty to “defiling” two 13-year-olds and a 10-year-old in a church in the village of Kangaru in December.

The court heard he had locked the girls inside the church as they returned chairs that had been borrowed for a funeral.

He was with the girls at the funeral and followed them to the church. After molesting them he bought them chips in exchange for their silence but they told their parents what had happened.

The girls were examined by a hospital doctor who confirmed the abuse.

Chief Magistrate Maxwell Gicheru said on handing down the sentence — which cumulates the three offences — that “the offence is serious and the accused should serve the sentence to deter others.”