A Manhattan judge Tuesday blasted a once-renowned New York music teacher for describing the 9-year-old girl he molested as flirtatious — and then sentenced him to two years in state prison.
“Sadly, he still blames the victim,” Justice Jill Konviser said of Ilya Lehman, the former head of the elite Upper West Side Early Ear music school. “I don’t really know what to say about that. She’s 9 years old. It’s ludicrous.”
The depraved virtuoso was caught molesting the third-grader when her mother walked in during a lesson in her home last April.
He said the young girl had been flirtatious with him, according to court papers.
Lehman, 70, copped to the sick act in January as part of a plea deal.
The gray-haired maestro, wearing glasses and a suit, looked at his wife of more than 30 years, his sons and sisters in the gallery before making a brief statement.
“I’m deeply regretful of my conduct and I want to apologize to the girl and her family, and additionally I want to apologize to my family,” he said softly in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Defense lawyer Raymond Granger asked the judge to reduce the agreed-upon sentence based on letters from Lehman’s supporters touting him as honorable and generous, but she refused.
“I’m not going to do that,” said Konviser. “A talented musician he may well be, a model citizen he is not.”
Lehman touched the young girl on numerous occasions and forced her to reciprocate at least five times over the course of several months, prosecutors said.
Lehman tried to silence his victim by contacting her mother and offering to pay back the money for the lessons and close his schools, prosecutors said.
Two other victims came forward, but those cases were too old to pursue criminally.
If convicted at trial, Lehman faced up to seven years in prison for the two felony charges.
He will automatically be registered as a convicted sex offender when released.
The Russian-born Lehman, who has a Ph.D. in music from the Moscow Conservatory, recently sold his school, which has trained hundreds of young prodigies in classical music since opening in 1992.