Karate Instructor Sentenced for Sex With Minor

Josh Churchill pleaded guilty last month to ten counts

A karate teacher who pleaded guilty to having sex with a minor student will spend four years and four months in prison.

Josh Thomas Churchill, 32 โ€” the former operator and lead instructor at United Studios Self-Defense Karate Studio โ€” was handed down his sentence Friday.

He admitted last month to ten charges, including lewd acts on a child and unlawful intercourse with a minor, pleading down from 53 criminal counts with which he was originally charged.

In June, San Diego County Sheriffโ€™s deputies crashed through the front door of Churchillโ€™s Poway karate studio to serve search warrants as the suspect was arrested near his San Diego home.

Investigators say for more than three years, he committed illegal acts against a minor at the studio and other locations.

According to his Facebook page "Sensei-Josh Churchill," Churchill was previously an instructor at Z-Ultimate Self Defense Studios in Poway, but as of April, he was no longer working there.

NBC 7 also found a civil court complaint filed on June 2 by Churchill. In the court papers, he asked for a protective order against an ex-employee of Z-Ultimate and her father, alleging that they attacked him in May after she was fired.

The ex-employee responded with a restraining order application of her own.

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