NEW YORK - Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former US congressman and estranged husband of one of Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, was sentenced to 21 months in prison on Monday for sexting a school girl.

The 53-year-old had pleaded guilty in May to sending explicit photographs and messages to a 15-year-old high school student last year as his wife worked on Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The one-time rising star in the Democratic Party and former candidate for New York mayor must now surrender to prison authorities on November 6. He was also sentenced to three years supervised release.

Weiner, whose wife Huma Abedin is divorcing him, found himself in the eye of a major political storm last October when then FBI director James Comey effectively reopened an investigation into Clinton’s email scandal just days before the presidential election.

The FBI acted after finding a batch of her emails on a computer belonging to Weiner, forwarded by Abedin. Clinton says the effective reopening of the investigation into the long-running email scandal played a key role in her shock defeat to Donald Trump.

“I was a very sick man for a very long time,” Weiner told the court on Monday, appearing thin and gaunt. Abedin, Clinton’s senior adviser during her election campaign, did not attend the hearing.

“I fully accept responsibility for what I did,” said Weiner, dressed in a navy suit.

In a nod to a string of earlier sexting scandals, he called himself an “addict” and said he was getting treatment. As part of his guilty plea, Weiner registered as a sex offender. “I live a better life today,” he told the court.

But US prosecutors sought a prison term of between 21 and 27 months.

Judge Denise Cote said there was no evidence Weiner targeted underage girls and conceded he had progressed with treatment for his addiction. But she said it was important to send a message to society at large.