VISTA, Calif. -- A 60-year-old former North County school administrator pleaded guilty Thursday to two felonies for sexually abusing a child over six years, beginning when she was 8.

Robert Melvin Goode Jr. will be sentenced to 12 years in state prison at a hearing May 18 before Vista Judge Daniel Goldstein.

The defendant's plea to charges of continuous sexual abuse of a minor and forcible oral copulation of a child under 14 came on the day scheduled for his preliminary hearing.

Goode could have faced more than 50 years behind bars if convicted of 11 counts, Deputy District Attorney Jodi Breton said.

Goode, who is married and has adult children, recently resigned from his administrative position at three affiliated private schools -- Classical Academy in Escondido, Classical Academy High School in Escondido and Coastal Academy in Oceanside. He surrendered to authorities last month.

For a number of years after 1983, he was high school principal at Tri-City Christian School in Vista.

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School Official Pleads Not Guilty To Molestation