A former Florida schoolteacher was sentenced Tuesday to more than seven years in prison for forcing a Haitian girl to work without pay in her home.

Maude Paulin, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said at her sentencing that she made some mistakes while raising Simone Celestin, though she wouldn't admit she held the girl as a forced laborer in her home, The Miami Herald reported.

Paulin, 52, along with her 74-year-old mother Evelyn Theodore, were convicted of conspiring to violate Celestin's civil rights and compelling her to perform forced labor.

Paulin's ex-husband, Saintfort Paulin, who was convicted of harboring an illegal alien without financial gain, was sentenced to 18 months probation, including six months of house arrest.

Celestin told jurors in March she worked for the women 15 hours a day, was sometimes beaten by the women and fed table scraps.

The women had adopted Celestin when she was a young girl in Haiti and took her to the United States when she was 14 years old.

Theodore's sentencing was postponed because she suffered a stroke shortly after her trial in March.

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