A man will spend the next five years in prison for attacking a Briggs Lawrence County Library employee in January.

Seth Coleman, 23, of 918 Adams St., Ironton, was sentenced by Judge Charles Cooper on Monday in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court. He was charged with a second-degree count of felonious assault stemming from an incident on Jan. 15 in which he attacked a library employee with a pair of scissors.

At his plea hearing last week, Coleman’s attorney, Mike Mearan, had said his client was off his medication when the incident happened.

“We have a young man who has some real psych problems that need to be dealt with,” Mearan said at the sentencing hearing. “I really believe, given an environment where he’s on his medication … I have every reason to believe when he gets out, he’ll be a useful member of society.”

The victim in the case did not attend the sentencing hearing, but was present during the plea hearing, at which time Coleman apologized to her.