LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest has been sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for smashing a wine bottle over a woman's head before he fled to Arizona in what the woman claimed was a sexual attack.

The Rev. George Chaanine denied he sexually assaulted the woman, and offered an apology and a rambling statement about his feelings for her before he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs, court information officer Michael Sommermeyer said.

"He loved her," Chaanine's court-appointed lawyer, Jeff Banks, said later. "His emotions got the better of him. It was the biggest mistake of his life and he's going to have to come to grips with it."

The Associated Press does not identify the victims of sexual assault.

Chaanine pleaded guilty Sept. 20 to felony battery with a deadly weapon, carrying a possible sentence of two to 15 years in prison, in a plea deal that avoided trial.

Prosecutors dropped other charges, including attempted murder, sexual assault and kidnapping that could have resulted in a sentence of life in prison with parole.

The victim and her adult daughter gave lengthy statements about the effect the Jan. 26 attack had on them.

The woman sang in the Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church choir and had been hired by Chaanine as the parish events coordinator. Previously, she was a professional singer who performed with Engelbert Humperdinck and starred in "Folies Bergere" in the 1980s.

She told Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt the attack caused her to lose her faith in the church and that she didn't want to live anymore.

Both sides have said Chaanine's relationship with the woman was more than priest and parishioner. The woman testified at Chaanine's preliminary hearing that he gave her money to help pay her bills and mortgage and treated her to lunch daily. But she said they were not romantically involved.

The woman, then 54, said Chaanine hit her in the head with a wine bottle, stomped on her hand, groped and choked her until she began praying. She said he suddenly stopped and fled.

Chaanine was arrested almost a week later near Phoenix.

The woman was treated for a broken hand and a gash on the head, authorities said.

Chaanine was given credit for time served at the Clark County jail, where he had been held on $1 million bail. The church did not pay for his defense.

Bishop Joseph Pepe, the head of the Las Vegas Diocese, issued a statement saying Chaanine remained suspended from his "priestly ministry."

After he was arrested, Chaanine's church salary was cut after to a small stipend to cover "basic necessities," said Rachel Wilkinson, a diocese spokeswoman. She said a determination of Chaanine's status as a priest was pending.

Chaanine, a native of Lebanon, was ordained in 1996 in the Eastern Catholic Maronite church. He worked in Detroit; Youngstown, Ohio; Wheeling, W.Va.; and El Paso, Texas, before beginning work at Our Lady of Las Vegas in 2004, the diocese said.

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