BOSTON (AP) — A rabbi has been sentenced to 10 years of probation but spared jail time after admitting he sexually abused students while working in the Boston area as a religious teacher in the 1970s.

Stanley Levitt pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child as his trial was set to begin.

On Thursday, prosecutors asked for a 2½-year sentence, plus 10 years of probation.

Prosecutors say the 66-year-old Philadelphia man lived in Boston and worked in Brookline when he abused three boys.

A grand jury indicted him in 2009 after two victims said Levitt assaulted them in 1975 while they were his students. A third victim later came forward.

Prosecutors say Levitt assaulted one victim in a Boston hospital room while visiting after the boy hurt his hand.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.