SAN DIEGO -- A convicted pedophile is a sexually violent predator and should remain at Atascadero State Hospital, where he can continue receiving treatment for his sexual disorders, a jury determined Wednesday.

The panel deliberated only a few hours before making the finding involving Matthew Hedge.

Under a new provision in state law, Hedge will be returned to Atascadero for an indeterminate term. Before the law changed, sexually violent predators could be returned to state mental hospitals for only two years at a time.

Hedge, 43, was convicted in 1989 of molesting four children and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

After serving six years in prison, he completed several years of treatment at Atascadero, and, in November 2005, was allowed to move into a trailer in a remote area of Otay Mesa, outside the walls of Donovan State Prison.

Two months later, he was sent back to the hospital for violating conditions of his outpatient release. Prosecutors said he talked to two teenage girls at an outpatient treatment center, lied to staff about his past and had a deviant fantasy involving a minor.

Deputy District Attorney Kristen Spieler told the jury that Hedge meets the state's criteria as a sexually violent predator. Experts agree that he remains a pedophile, for which there is no cure, and he also was diagnosed as having a chronic anti-social personality disorder, she said.

Spieler said in her opening statement to the jury that Hedge is likely to molest children again if released into the community and should remain at Atascadero under the supervision of the Department of Mental Health.

The first time Hedge was released, he wouldn't follow the rules set out by his outpatient treatment team, Spieler said.

"Mr. Hedge agreed there were some problems," the prosecutor said.

One of Hedge's attorneys, Marion Gaston, told the jury that her client did not fit the state's criteria as a sexually violent predator.

Hedge is committed to treatment and understanding why he's done his past crimes, Gaston told the panel.

"Treatment is as precious to Mr. Hedge as air," Gaston said.

Gaston said Hedge's father died when he was 3 years old and he was molested when he was 6.

Hedge turned to alcohol and methamphetamine early in life and "viewed the world as a scary and cold place," Gaston told the jury.

She said Hedge was "angry," felt "betrayed" and was "frustrated" when he was sent back to Atascadero in 2005 but has thrown himself back into treatment, talking as if it "has saved his life, because it has."