NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Twenty years ago, the mayor of Waterbury went to prison for molesting two young girls hundreds of times over two years.

They were just 8 and 10 years old. Now, those little girls are all grown up. They came to News 8 to tell their stories because they say they are no longer victims.

Phil Giordano was a slick, brash, and powerful three-term mayor of Waterbury. His fall from the mayor’s office to prison in 2003 left Connecticut stunned and disgusted.

While he was under investigation for corruption, a federal wiretap overheard Giordano making plans with a prostitute to bring him two little girls, who are cousins, for sex.

Giordano: “Do you got the girls?”

Doe: “Of course.”

Giordano: “Definitely?”

Doe: “Yep.”

The abuse happened four or five times a week for two years. The girls testified against Giordano via video, helping send him to prison for 37 years.

“You’re a liar. You are a monster,” Tatiana Jones said. “You don’t deserve to be out here. You don’t.”

“You affected two young girls that have to live with this forever,” Latoya Mullen said.

Mullen, now 32, and Jones, 30, contacted News 8 because they decided to tell their story.

News 8’s Darren Kramer asked, “Why do you want to tell this story now? Why are you speaking out now?”

“Because I have to start a healing process,” Mullen said. “There’s got to be a moment in my life that I want normalcy. I want to be able to say, you know what? Yes, this happened, but I’m no longer going to be a prisoner in his life. I’m not a victim anymore. I’m not.”

“There are monsters out there,” Jones said. “I just don’t want nothing like this to happen to another child.”

Jones’ birth mother, Guitana Jones, was a prostitute with a drug habit. She brought the girls to Giordano and served a decade for what she did.

“I don’t call my mom, mom,” Jones told News 8. “That’s Gigi.”

“I go inside. I see a guy with a suit on. I’m looking at my cousin, my cousin is looking at me,” Mullen said. “First thing I can think of is, what’s going on? Why are we here? We get in the room, and she starts to explain what’s going to happen. Immediately, me and my cousin started crying because we’re afraid, now you know. He told my aunt, and my aunt showed us exactly what we had to do. It turned my life around from there. I was never the same after that first visit.”

“I look at my child, and she’s like so carefree,” Jones said. “She doesn’t even know any of this, and I was just like dang, I can’t believe I went through this, you know, at eight.”

Mullen spoke about the day when the abuse ended.

“I prayed as a kid because we grew up as Jehovah’s witnesses. So, at that time, I used to pray for someone to come and save me from that house. And when they came and kicked in that door, I was so happy because I didn’t have to suffer and go to that anymore.”

“I just remember being woken up in the middle of the night and people telling me I was going on a vacation for a little bit,” Jones said. “And it turned out being the rest of my life.”

The girls grew up in DCF custody. Over the years, the cousins have tried to move on. Both have jobs and children. Jones now lives in North Carolina, but it wasn’t until recently they discovered something that brought the searing pain and anger back — Giordano has never admitted what he did.

“How could a man so powerful that was supposed to protect my city and everybody in it know that he did something so evil like that? And don’t even admit that you’re wrong? I would have respected him more if he said he was guilty,” Jones said.

“I want him to tell me to my face that you didn’t do anything to me. I want you to cause you can’t do it. I know for a fact you can’t do it.”

“I’m praying for him…that one day that he would know that he was wrong,” Mullen said.

Mullen and Jones hope to write a book about their ordeal.

Giordano is 59 and locked up in a Mississippi prison. He has tried several times over the years to either get out or have his sentence reduced. Most recently, he told a federal judge he was afraid he would get COVID-19. The judge said no.

He is scheduled to be released in July 2033.