David Morrier, the Franciscan priest who admitted to sexual battery of a student he professed to be counseling at Franciscan University of Steubenville, is headed to Missouri to serve the balance of his probation.

Morrier, 61, had planned to transfer to Pennsylvania for the duration of his sentence, but an entry filed Wednesday in Jefferson County Common Pleas Court noted authorities in the commonwealth had “completed their investigation and … denied defendant’s transfer to the state.” No reason was given for the refusal.

Authorities have described Morrier as a predator who “looked for and found a victim he thought no one else would believe,” saying he weaponized the abuse the woman had previously endured at the hands of a family member, manipulating her into believing she was possessed by demons and that God had tasked him with healing her through a series of exorcisms and deliverances, and coerced her into performing sexual acts in Finnegan Fieldhouse, the chapel and the confessional.

Originally charged with rape, on March 11 he pleaded guilty to sexual battery, admitting he’d used his position and the victim’s troubled past to engage in sexual conduct with the female student many times during a period of three years beginning in 2010.

In exchange for his guilty plea, Morrier was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to register his status as a sex offender every 90 days for the rest of his life.

Prosecutor Jane Hanlin said his victim, identified in court only as “Jane Doe,” agreed to the plea deal to ensure Morrier would carry a warning label that he was a sex offender, thereby ensuring he could never again victimize another woman as he had her. Had the case gone to trial, if just one juror felt the state fell short of proving its case he could have walked out of court without any restrictions, a risk Hanlin said his victim felt she couldn’t take.

He’s been held in the county jail since March 18, a week after the trial, when Morrier told Judge Joseph Bruzzese his first housing option — living under house arrest and wearing an ankle monitor at a Steubenville residence — didn’t work out.

As of Sunday, when he leaves for Missouri, Morrier will have been housed in the jail for 128 days.

Escorting him to Missouri will be the Rev. Joseph Lehman, Third Order Regular minister provincial, who must present him to the Franklin County (Mo.) Department of Probation and Parole by 4 p.m.