An Amish man who admitted to molesting four girls when he was a teenager was sentenced to prison Thursday by a Dauphin County judge.

The case of Ephraim King is the third involving the prosecution of a member of upper Dauphin County’s Old Order Amish community in the last few years.

The 11 ½- to 23-month prison term President Judge Richard A. Lewis imposed on King was set in an agreement King reached when he pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including aggravated indecent assault, in April.

King, now 33 and a Lebanon County resident, is to serve his sentence in the county work-release center, then spend another 5 years on probation and perform 500 hours of community service.

Deputy District Attorney Katie Adam said King admitted to molesting the girls, ages 7 to 8 in Upper Paxton Township around 2001. King would have the girls sit on his lap and then would fondle their genitals, the prosecutor said.

His arrest apparently stems from a sexual abuse awareness program she, county victim advocates and the state police offered to Amish bishops in upper Dauphin County and Northumberland and Schuylkill counties in 2017, Adam said. She said numerous anonymous tips were reported to police from Amish sources after that program.

Adam said King cooperated with police and freely confessed to the crimes.

King stood before Lewis on Thursday morning wearing traditional Amish garb, a blue shirt, black pants and dark red suspenders. A group of fellow church members filled a pew at the back of the courtroom, but neither they nor King made any statements to the judge.

“I would ask that he be allowed to attend church,” defense attorney Christopher Sarno asked the judge, seeking a narrow exception to sex offender regulations that will bar King from having contact with children. Lewis agreed to that without objection from Adam.

Adam did object, however, when Sarno asked that the start of King’s sentence be deferred so King can make arrangements to keep his job at a Lebanon County agribusiness while on work-release. “I’d like him to be incarcerated today,” Adams said. Lewis ordered King to report to the work-release center on Aug. 29.

Adam said King’s victims agreed with his plea deal and are willing to forgive him.

“Nevertheless, there’s still a price to pay under Pennsylvania law,” Lewis told King.

King’s sentencing came nearly two years after another member of the Old Order church in upper Dauphin County was sent to prison in a child-sex case. Daniel Fisher, then 45, of Mifflin Township, was ordered in October 2017 to serve 1 to 2 years behind bars for molesting two girls in 2011.

A month before Fisher’s sentencing, a bishop in the church, Christ M. Stoltzfus, then 70, was sentenced to 3 months of probation for failing to report Fisher’s crimes to police as required by state law.

Adam said no criminal charges currently are pending against any other members of the county’s Amish community.