UPDATE::Former children's pastor pleads guilty to sex charges - WAFF-TV: News, Weather and Sports for Huntsville, AL

A former Colbert County children's pastor charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse and sodomy, pleaded guilty in court Friday morning.

Jeff Eddie pleaded guilty to 16 counts of sodomy, three counts of sexual abuse of a child and one count of child porn.

Eddie served as a children's pastor at Highland Park Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals. Eddie was arrested in early February and charged with more than 30 counts of child porn, sexual abuse of a child, and sodomy.

According to court documents, Eddie confessed to performing sex acts multiple times on children from his church.

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Investigators said their number one focus during the case was protecting the victims, and that's what they did throughout the entire process. A judge granted a motion to have the records sealed following Friday's proceedings to further protect the victims. Both the defense attorney and prosecutors agreed they didn't want the case to go to trial. They said if the case would've gone to trial, there was a chance the victims would have had to testify, and that was something both sides felt would only further hurt the victims.

"We didn't want this case to go to trial," said Colbert County District Attorney Bryce Graham. "For anyone that says it's not enough, if it would've went any further then there's a possibility we would've had a child to testify, and we didn't want that to happen."

Former children's pastor pleads guilty to sex charges - WAFF-TV: News, Weather and Sports for Huntsville, AL