FORT PIERCE — An 81-year-old man who had accepted a plea deal on child molestation charges claimed his innocence Tuesday just as he was to be sentenced, prompting Circuit Judge Cynthia Cox to order a psychiatric evaluation.

The sentencing hearing for Aureliano Garcia-Campo of Port St. Lucie had gone on nearly three hours when Cox gave him a chance to speak. Garcia-Campo said through an interpreter, “The only thing I have to say is that I am innocent.”

Authorities charged that Garcia-Campo, while a volunteer at a Head Start day-care center on Lennard Road in fall 2007, inappropriately touched several 4- and 5-year-old girls. One girl told police he not only touched her genitals and buttocks but also fondled her.

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