Peter Ivan McNeal, former drummer with Cake, has protested his innocence following being found guilty of child molestation.

The 48-year-old was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Los Angeles for sexually assaulting a three-year-old girl at a Laurel Canyon Thanksgiving party in 2009, the Los Angeles Times reports. He must also register as a sex offender for life. 

McNeal's legal team released a statement from his family: "We stand strong with Peter, accompanied by our extended family and swath of intelligent friends across the country and abroad, who, along with our legal counsel, will take our fight against this gross failure of justice to a higher court. We will do so until the time that Peter is free and his name is cleared." After the sentencing, Attorney Fay Arfa immediately filed a Notice of Appeal. 

McNeal was found guilty of oral copulation of a child 10 years old or younger back in March 2013 and was sentenced by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Fred Wapner earlier this week.

His previous record shows charges for misdemeanour, and being sentenced to three years probation in relation to a separate incident of attemping to molest a six-year-old at a Los Angeles school where he was volunteering. 

Cake, who rose to fame in 1996 with second album Fashion Nugget and single 'The Distance', asked McNeal (who has also worked with the likes of Norah Jones and Brett Dennen) to join the band in 2001 to replace Todd Roper. He exited the band in 2004.