Daniel Timothy Duplaisir, who lured a Texas A&M University professor into a sexually explicit online relationship by pretending to be an underage girl, has been sentenced to a year in prison Monday for operating an extortion scheme. The extortion led to the suicide of James Arnt Aune, who jumped to death from a campus parking garage.

Duplaisir of Metairie, La., pretended to be the girl's annoyed father and demanded money to maintain the relationship secret.

Before U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes announced the sentence, Duplaisir said that he 'did a horrible thing ... I will never do anything like this again,' abc reports. Apart from the jail term, the 37-year-old convict has been ordered to pay $1,500 in compensation, the amount Duplaisir extorted from the professor.

The 59-year-old professor's wife Miriam Aune, told the judge that Duplaisir 'destroyed so much and paid so little.'

Aune, who had been married to Miriam for 27 years, was considered a fine scholar, mentor and friend by students and his fellow professors at the university where he headed the school's Department of Communication.

Miriam said that her husband lost mental peace in recent years - he fought depression, survived prostate cancer and became an alcoholic.

According to an affidavit signed by an FBI agent, Duplaisir used pictures of a young female relative, Karen McCall, to lure Aune into the relationship.

Later, the underage relative told authorities that Duplaisir took nude photographs and videos of her. Both of them then created an online profile to send the images to men, Chron reports. Duplaisir would then contact the victims, pretending to be an outraged relative.

Authorities believe the female relative to be a victim of sexual abuse. She is not charged with any crime.

Topics Prison, Texas A&M University