BEVERLY — For years, she had tried to forget the abuse and move on with her life. She succeeded for a while.

Then, the Beverly woman learned that her daughter had become a victim, as well.

Yesterday, Concetto Costa, 37, of Danvers, a relative of the woman and her daughter, pleaded guilty to child rape and indecent assault and battery charges and was sentenced to seven to 10 years in state prison. Costa admitted to raping the woman and to molesting the girl, who was 5 at the time.

"Not only did he take away my innocence, he also stole my daughter's," the woman told a judge in a victim-impact statement.

At the end of an emotional hearing, Costa apologized to the woman, who was sobbing.

Salem Superior Court Judge David Lowy said the sentence was a "fraction of what is deserved" in the case but said he recognized the difficulty of putting both victims through a trial.

He praised the woman for the courage to come forward and protect her daughter.

It was protection that the woman herself was denied two decades ago, when Costa began abusing her. At the time, she was between the ages of 8 and 12.

Over a four-year period starting in 1988, Costa, then in his late teens, repeatedly raped the first victim whenever he had the opportunity.

Her mother knew what was happening, prosecutor Melissa Woodard said, but did not report the abuse out of her desire to protect the family and Costa.

Years later, now a mother herself, the woman left her daughter with her mother while she went on vacation in the spring of 2001.

When she returned, she was horrified to learn that Costa had visited her mother's home and had been left alone with the little girl.

In a phone call Costa made to the woman from Middleton Jail, where he was being held on unrelated charges, she pleaded, "Tell me it isn't true. Tell me your fingers weren't in her underpants."

But Costa would eventually admit what he had done — and what he had done to her years earlier. He apologized, but rationalized it by telling her that it happens in many families.

The woman said she now forgives him and wants to see him get help while in prison, something defense lawyer Michael Phelan told Lowy his client is eager to do.

Lowy said he was impressed with the woman's "incredible capacity to forgive" and reassured her that it was not at all her fault.

He went on to blast Costa's tape-recorded comments from jail, saying it appeared that Costa was trying to "justify appalling and disgusting conduct" with his suggestion that many people do what he did.

The judge had harsh words for those who protected Costa at the expense of his victims, suggesting they had a "polluted sense of priorities as to who should be protected when the victim was at an age when she couldn't (protect herself)."

After he completes his seven- to 10-year prison term, Costa will be on probation for 10 years. Prosecutors could also seek to have him committed as a sexually dangerous person.

If he is released, he will be required to wear a GPS monitor and register as a sex offender. Lowy also ordered alcohol treatment, a mental health evaluation, and that he have no contact with the woman or her daughter.