MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- Some Durham parents said they didn’t get the closure they expected Tuesday when a bus driver charged with groping young boys on a school bus was sentenced.

Prosecutors said Anthony Mathre paid a 5-year-old boy $1 last year to lay down on the bus so he could pin the child and rub himself on the boy. They said he gave candy to another child on the bus to be the lookout.

The former bus driver did the same thing to an 8-year-old boy, prosecutors said.

Mathre was sentenced Tuesday in Middletown to nine months in prison with a four-year suspended sentence with strict probation requirements. Since he has been in custody since the incident he can now be released.

"I'm deeply sorry,” Mathre said in court. “I admit I was wrong. If I could apologize face to face I would. I have learned a lesson."

The parents of the victims said they’re frustrated with the outcome.

Mathre pleaded guilty to the charges in this case, meaning to two young boys involved in the case didn’t have to testify.

Prosecutors said that if the case had gone to trial and Mathre was found guilty, he would have received a considerably longer sentence.