Conn. (WTNH) — This week in Connecticut history, we’re taking a look back at a crime that shocked the state.

March 25, 2003

Philip Giordano left court cuffed in a prison jumpsuit, he was ashen and stone faced as the jury’s verdict came in: guilty on 17 counts.

Former Waterbury Mayor Giordano was found guilty on his 40th birthday — but not for the crime he was originally being investigated for.

When federal agents wiretapped his phone in a corruption probe, what they heard stunned them. Giordano made arrangements with a prostitute to bring her 8-year-old daughter and her 10-year-old niece to have sex with him.

The girls testified by closed circuit TV, telling jurors in graphic detail what the mayor had forced them to do.

Giordano is serving a 37-year prison sentence in Mississippi. Last year, he asked to be released because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the prison, though the judge denied his request.