A correction officer from New London has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman while she was in custody at the Janet S. York Correctional Institution in East Lyme.

Wesley Applegate, 38, of 100 Ocean Ave. pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sexual assault when he appeared Thursday in New London Superior Court. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 18, according to court records.

Applegate was arrested on a warrant by Connecticut State Police in April 2021. State police and the Department of Correction began investigating him months earlier, after an inmate at the prison reported having seen Applegate having sex with another inmate on Nov. 15, 2020, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

It is illegal for a correction officer to have sex with an inmate over whom he has supervisory authority.

Applegate, who is free on a $50,000 bond, faces a sentence of 10 years in prison, suspended after 18 months, and 10 years of probation. His sentence also will carry a requirement to register as a sex offender, according to court officials.