PORTLAND – A divided Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday upheld a 50-year prison term for a former Lewiston man convicted of abducting and raping a Winthrop woman nearly four years ago.

In its 5-2 decision, the justices concluded that the trial judge acted within the law in handing Michael Commeau, 50, consecutive sentences of 10 years for kidnapping and 40 years for gross sexual assault.

The two dissenters said the sentences should have been concurrent because the kidnapping apparently was carried out solely to facilitate the sexual assault. But the majority agreed that the kidnapping could have been a separate criminal act.

“The court could well have concluded that restraining, terrifying, controlling and humiliating his victim were other purposes of Commeau’s well-planned kidnapping of his latest victim,” Chief Justice Leigh Saufley wrote for the majority.

The state had sought a 100-year sentence for Commeau, who abducted, assaulted or raped at least five women during a 30-year criminal history that included violent crimes and sex crimes in Kansas, Massachusetts and Maine.

“Michael Commeau’s criminal record in Maine alone is chilling,” Saufley wrote. Convicted of rapes in 1980, 1981 and 1982, he had spent approximately 20 years in Maine’s correctional facilities by the time he turned 42.

A Kennebec County jury determined that Commeau had kidnapped and sexually assaulted the young woman whom he had stalked in order to determine when she would be most vulnerable to attack.

On the night of Oct. 4, 2000, Commeau grabbed her as she was leaving her office and forced her to drive down a dirt road in a secluded location, where he ordered her to perform oral sex on him.

Commeau was apprehended later that evening when a white van that the rapist used on his stalking mission was traced to him.

The opinion noted that Commeau has a penile implant that must be pumped by hand before sexual activity but does not affect his ability to engage in sex.

Michaela Murphy, attorney for the victim, filed a civil lawsuit and sought earlier to find out whether the state paid for Commeau’s penile implant while he was imprisoned on sexual assault charges before the attack on her client.

Murphy could not be reached immediately for comment on Wednesday. Assistant Attorney General Diane Sleek said she was barred from releasing confidential medical information.