A man who was jailed earlier this week for drugging three of his daughter's 12-year-old friends at a sleepover last summer made a shocking admission before the sentence was passed.
Oregon man Michael Meyden, 57, handed himself into the police in February this year, six months after medics found large traces of benzodiazepine in the systems of the the trio of schoolgirls.
The harrowing discovery was made after one of the girls informed her parents she believed she'd been given laced smoothies by her friend's father, who'd allegedly been overly involved in the pre-arranged get-together.
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The girls alleged that he had been consistently checking on them throughout the duration of the evening, and that between 9-11pm, he'd brought the group a batch of mango smoothies, which appeared to have 'tiny white chunks throughout and sprinkled on top'.
Meyden had allegedly encouraged the girls to drink them, even making a second batch when one of them said she wasn't keen on the taste.
Investigating officers later claimed that the probable affidavit was that Meyden had drugged the girls, after the girl that secretly didn't finish her drink claimed she'd witnessed him entering the room and performing 'tests' on them to see if they were sleeping.
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The terrified youngster claimed he'd placed a finger under one of their noses and waved a hand in front of another's face, after which she managed to secretly alert her parents via text and ask to be collected.
The mums and dads of the other sleepover attendees also went to Meyden's home to recover their girls, who were assessed at a hospital.
Officers indicted Mayden on three felony counts of causing another individual to ingest a controlled substance.
Speaking later to press, one of the girls' family members claimed the trio were 'terrified' about the prospect of having to 'face him' in court.
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Despite initially pleading not guilty during the trial - which concluded on Monday - Meyden was seen breaking down in tears, admitting he only laced the girls' drinks with a prescription sedative because he 'wanted them to go to bed'.
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Judge Ann Lininger heard the three victims and their families claim the incident had taken them weeks to recover from, with the first claiming his actions caused her long-term harm.
The unnamed youngster told the court: "We were taught adults are people we can trust, people we can go to when we need help or when we are scared.
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"Yet adults are not people I can simply trust anymore. They are people who scare me and make me think twice: What if they were to hurt me the same way as Mr. Meyden?"
The second victim also revealed that she saw Meyden as her 'best friend's dad', and he'd 'abused' her trust.
The third continued: "I am disgusted by the look of your face and your actions and all that you have done. You are horrible and I will always hate you for what you have done."
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Replying to the accusations, Meyden told the court he accepted responsibility for his actions.
"I was overly fixated on them going to bed, yes, that is true," he confessed.
"My whole life is destroyed. Everything that was important to me up until that point is gone."
Judge Lininger told the perpetrator that she believed his 'shame and remorse' is 'authentic', saying: "I think you have created a lot of pain and you rightly note that your own family is suffering a lot.
"That is accountability you have earned through some terrible, dangerous choices you have made but that is not the last thing that happens in your life.
"You have decades and decades of life ahead in which you may have an opportunity to show your children how a person comes back from terrible choices."
Meyden will now spend two years in prison, but may get up to about five months off his sentence if he maintains a clean disciplinary record.
Topics: Crime, True Crime, US News, News, Parenting
Rhianna Benson