YOUNGSTOWN - On Friday in Mahoning County Court, Donavin Chipps was sentenced to serve 27 years on five charges including rape, sexual battery, unlawful sexual conduct and gross sexual imposition. The victims spoke about how the abuse has changed their lives in court. 

“Insecurity and self doubt are the two biggest takeaways from the incident and they’ve stuck the hardest,” one victim said. “Now I'm riddled with illness.”

“I can’t really find the words or express enough things to say because this is just something I'm going to have to deal with for the rest of my life,” Ashton Gingerich, another victim said about the abuse. 

Prosecutors said the incidents happened between March of 2014 and June of 2015. Chipps was living in a home with two of the victims and working as an instructor at the families taekwondo studio, where he allegedly met more of his victims. The mother of two of the victims called Chipps a monster in her statement in court. 

The defense noted Chipps troubled past of abandonment and abuse himself. However the judge said “when that happens there are certainly two paths one can take” before handing down the nearly three decade sentence.  

Chipps waived his right to an appeal and expressed remorse in his statement to the judge.

"Your honor, I'm ashamed to be here. This isn't where I saw my life going,” Chipps said. 

Gingerich vows to end the cycle of abuse and speak up for others.

“I couldn’t imagine just taking that trust that this child has with me and their parents and using it for something so horrific,” he said,

Gingerich has his own taekwondo studio now and said the history of abuse has affected his business. 

“I have to constantly battle with these people of ‘no I’m not going to do anything tragic or horrifying to you’” he said. 

Under the stage name Dravin, Gingerich turned his experiences into art with a song about the trail called “Zodiac Killer.” The cover picture is symbolic of the killing of innocence with Gingerich sitting holding a white flower and a man behind him, representing Chipps, holding the same flower and a knife. 

“My zodiac killer, he wasn’t picky. He’s just another messed up pisces son. What I used to hate now I’ve grown to pity. I’ll never understand or do the things he’s done,” Gingrech’s lyrics said.