LOS ANGELES, United States (AP) — Leader of La Luz del Mundo church has been sentenced to 16 years and eight months in a California prison for sexually abusing three girls.

Naasón Joaquín García was sentenced Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court after pleading guilty to three felonies on the eve of a long-awaited trial.

García, who is considered the “apostle” of Jesus Christ by his five million worldwide followers, had vigorously fought the charges until he abruptly pleaded guilty last week.

Prosecutors say he used his spiritual influence to have sex with several female followers. García had faced trial Monday on 19 counts that included child rape allegations.

Judge Ronald Coen called García a sexual predator.

“It never ceases to amaze me what people do in the name of religion and how many lives are ruined in the guise of a supreme being,” Coen said.

Coen denied requests by the victims to impose a stiffer sentence, saying his hands were tied by the plea agreement.

Earlier one by one, several young women who said they had been sexually abused by the leader of Mexican megachurch implored the judge Wednesday to sentence García to the maximum for stealing their innocence and wrecking their lives.

They spoke of how their happiness at being accepted into one of García’s inner circles quickly spun into an out-of-control nightmare of rape and other sexual abuse that they were told would lead to their salvation — or damnation if they refused.

“I worshipped my abuser,” said a woman identified as Jane Doe 4, who sobbed as she spoke about García as a “monster”. “He used me over and over again like a sacrificial lamb taken to slaughter.”

The women he admitted to abusing, and at least one other accuser, were united in their criticism of the plea deal that was offered by prosecutors from the attorney general’s office.

They said they had looked forward to García facing a trial in the hopes he’d be locked up for life. Now that option was gone they pleaded with Judge Ronald Coen to impose at least a 20-year sentence, telling him that García had made a mockery of the court and told his followers he only pleaded guilty because he wasn’t being treated fairly.

Patricia Fusco, supervising deputy attorney general, tearfully praised the victims for their bravery in standing up to García and his faithful followers who have rallied around him and shamed the young women.

“They trusted him. They thought he was basically God on Earth,” Fusco said of the victims. “We know, of course, he’s not God. Not even close. … Anyone who still believes he’s God is complicit and they’re supporting a child molester.”

García, dressed in orange jail scrubs and wearing a surgical mask pulled under his glasses, didn’t turn to face the women. He sat upright and looked straight ahead with this hands, shackled at his waist.

Prosecutors said he used his spiritual sway to have sex with female followers and was aided by others in the church who groomed the women and facilitated the abuse.

The women said they were called angels or “angelistas,” and were told they were García’s property.

They had only known life in the church — praying three times a day — and when they finally turned on García they found themselves isolated and suffering in silence. Some of their own family members didn’t believe them.

“Being called an apostate was the worst of the worst and you would go to hell no matter what,” said Jane Doe 2, who wept throughout her statement.

García had been scheduled to go on trial Monday on 19 counts that also included allegations of human trafficking to produce child pornography. A judge had thrown out four counts of extortion and sentencing enhancements for great bodily injury for lack of evidence.

Defence lawyers had said prosecutors were operating under a far-fetched legal theory that García used spiritual coercion for sexual pleasure.

“It is a fantasy seemingly invented out of whole cloth,” defence attorney Alan Jackson wrote in a court filing.

But prosecutors said the victims were essentially brainwashed by García and felt they would be ostracised by the insular church community if they didn’t submit to his desires. In denying a defence motion to dismiss the case, a judge said García used religion as “invisible handcuffs” to exploit his victims.

García’s grandfather founded the Guadalajara-based fundamentalist Christian church — known by its English name, The Light of the World — in 1926.

García took over as “apostle” after his father, Samuel Joaquín Flores, died in 2014.