An emergency medical technician for Brooke County has pleaded guilty to one felony count of third-degree sexual abuse.

Trevor Lee Selby entered the plea Thursday morning in front of a Marshall County circuit court judge.

With the plea, the state also dismissed a second count of the same charge.

In court documents it says the now 21-year-old Selby was 20 at the time he admittedly had consensual sex with his then 15-year-old girlfriend.

Something that amounts to statutory rape in the state of West Virginia.

Officials say the initial charges were brought to them by a Marshall County Sheriff's Deputy.

After Selby entered his guilty plea in front of Chief Judge David Hummel Jr., a sheriff's deputy took Selby to the Northern Regional Jail where he is being held until he can complete a series of required testing and counseling.

On Thursday afternoon the prosecuting attorney and a Brooke County Commissioner talked about the crime and the repercussions.

"To get certified as an EMT in this state there are certain things that you have to keep up and you are disqualified if you are convicted of crimes and things like that," said Brooke County Commissioner Tim Ennis. "So just by the criteria established by West Virginia we may have no choice but to suspend him and terminate him."

"It was a consensual relationship between a 20-year-old and 15-year-old, while certainly illegal and certainly he will be punished for it. It wasn't any type of forcible compulsion or anything like that," said Jeffrey D. Cramer, the prosecuting attorney for Marshall County.

Selby is facing anywhere from one to five years in prison and will have to register as a sex offender, something he acknowledged during Thursday's proceedings.

The state also met with the victim and her mother, who approved of the plea agreement.

The next step for Selby is sentencing and that will happen in the next two weeks. As for the county, it must wait for a recommendation from the ambulance director at which time it can act on a suspension or termination.