RIVERSIDE, Ohio -- A Riverside church pastor accused of sexual assault made a guilty plea in court Thursday.

Dennis Bowling was the head pastor of Kingdom Harvest Church and back in 2006 a church member made a phone call to police and said the pastor was having sex with young female members in the church, police said.

Police said originally Bowling faced 11 charges, but more and more victims came forward with testimony of their own assaults.

After nearly two years of sitting in jail, awaiting trial, Bowling admitted to his crimes, police said.

Prosecutors said Bowling had sexual contact with at least eight young members of his congregation dating back to 1996.

Bowling will be labeled a tier three sex offender, the most serious classification, and he can never have contact again with the young church members he has admitted to sexually assaulting, police said.

Bowling will be sentenced in July and prosecutors said if Bowling would have went to trial on 154 counts, the sentence would have been similar because the time is often served concurrently, not consecutively.