A Santa Ana church leader has been sentenced to 45 years to life for sexually assaulting three girls he met while going to a church in the city, authorities announced Friday.

Carlos Ramirez Valdez, a 61-year-old resident of Riverside, was convicted of 11 felony accounts related to sexually abusing a child under the age of 14 and three felony counts of sexually abusing a child 10 or younger, according to a press release from the Orange County District Attorney’s office.

During the assaults, Valdez was a church leader at Iglesia De Dios Ebenezer Church in Santa Ana. He is accused of luring a young girl into his van parked in the church’s parking lot or to the church’s basement to abuse the girl over and over during a seven-year period, according to the release. The girl was between the age

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