Certified nursing assistant Mark Genetiano, 26, was sentenced to a year in prison and five years of probation this morning after pleading guilty to molesting four elderly women in a retirement home.

Genetiano apologized for his conduct in a hearing before Circuit Judge Karen Ahn.

The sentence followed a plea agreement reached earlier by Genetiano and his defense lawyer, Dan Oyasato, with city prosecutors.

The victims, who were residents of the Kahala Nui retirement home in east Honolulu, ranged in age from 89 to 92 years old when the assaults took place in May and June last year.

All four victims suffered from Alzheimer's disease or dementia and were "mentally defective, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless," prosecutors said.

According to a police report, three of Genetiano's co-workers reported that he pinched the patients' private parts while they were changing clothes or in the bathroom. The co-workers said the women tried to fend off his advances by waving their arms and yelling at him to stop, and that Genetiano laughed at them, the affidavit said.

Genetiano is forbidden from working in a retirement facility or nursing or care home for the duration of his probation.

As a registered sex offender for the rest of his life, Genetiano is unlikely to ever find such work again, Deputy Prosecutor Scott Spallina said.

Ahn ordered Genetiano to pay $630 in victim compensation fees as well as other court costs.

She allowed him to pay at a rate of at least $25 per month.

Genetiano was convicted of six counts of third-degree sex assault, admitting that he assaulted two of the victims twice.