A grand jury in Texas has handed up extra felony sexual assault fees in opposition to a Roman Catholic priest accused of preying on ladies whom he met whereas ministering to them in that state in addition to in south-east Louisiana, officers mentioned.
Anthony Odiong is now going through a complete of 5 fees of sexual assault within the first diploma and two extra such counts within the second diploma – all in reference to three separate ladies – after a brand new indictment was handed up in opposition to him Thursday within the McLennan county, Texas, state courthouse.
An earlier indictment in opposition to Odiong, 55, secured by the McLennan county district lawyer’s workplace on 12 September had initially charged him within the instances of two ladies: with one depend of first-degree sexual assault and two of second-degree sexual assault. Put one other approach, the newer indictment added one sufferer and 4 extra first-degree sexual assault fees.
Odiong, who was first arrested in July, might obtain as much as life imprisonment if convicted on any of the first-degree fees. The second-degree counts every carry as much as 20 years in jail in Texas, which is one in all solely a couple of dozen states with legal guidelines criminalizing sexual exercise between clergymen and adults who emotionally rely upon their non secular counsel.
As a result of the case remained pending Thursday, Odiong is presumed to have pleaded not responsible to the costs in opposition to him.
Thursday’s grand jury produced its indictment virtually instantly after it ending reviewing Odiong’s case, taking hardly any time to deliberate.
A police investigation in Waco headed by detective Bradley DeLange led to Odiong’s arrest inside months of the Guardian having printed a report detailing prior allegations in opposition to the priest that ranged from sexual coercion and unwelcome touching to monetary abuse, all coming from ladies whom the Nigerian nationwide met by his work as a Catholic clergyman.
Sworn police statements present that the Guardian investigation prompted a lady to stroll into the Waco police division and denounce Odiong as having sexually assaulted her in 2012.
DeLange’s ensuing investigation discovered proof suggesting that Odiong would place himself as a non secular adviser to ladies grappling with difficulties of their private lives – after which exploit his proximity to hunt sexual contact with them.
He allegedly had sexual activity with at the least one of many ladies on the middle of the primary indictment in opposition to him. With at the least one of many different victims, he allegedly managed to strain the girl into participating in anal intercourse along with her husband regardless of faith-based objections to that sort of encounter – and he additionally purportedly satisfied her to reveal particulars of her expertise to him for his gratification.
Moreover, detectives mentioned they discovered digital youngster abuse imagery in Odiong’s possession. These allegations haven’t been included in both of Odiong’s indictments, although that doesn’t eradicate authorities from finally acquiring a proper cost with respect to that allegation in the event that they deem it essential.
Collectively, greater than eight ladies have come ahead to police with usually related allegations in opposition to Odiong, even when not all have resulted in fees. That variety of accusers eliminated statutes of limitations – or closing dates to file legal fees – as a consideration in Odiong’s case because of technicalities embedded in Texas legislation.
Police arrested Odiong close to a house the place he was dwelling inside the deliberate Catholic group of Ave Maria, Florida, on 16 July. Officers later transferred him to the jail in McLennan, which incorporates Waco, and he was ordered held on a comparatively excessive $2.5m bail that he has not been capable of make.
Odiong was ordained into the Catholic priesthood within the diocese of Uyo, Nigeria, in 1993. In 2006, the bishop of Austin, Texas, on the time – Gregory Aymond – invited Odiong to work there.
After a cease in Rome, Odiong in 2015 gained permission to work inside the archdiocese of New Orleans – Aymond by then had been appointed the archbishop of that metropolis. The archdiocese supplied an announcement to the New York Instances lately that mentioned Odiong was solely in New Orleans on the request of his superiors in Uyo.
Odiong was ministering inside Aymond’s archdiocese till this previous December, although a few of his accusers had beforehand reported him to church authorities in New Orleans and Austin, police or each, in line with the Guardian’s investigative reporting.
A minimum of one declare demanding damages from Odiong and church officers is pending in an unresolved chapter safety submitting that the New Orleans archdiocese made in 2020 after years of grappling with clergy abuse-related litigation. As a Penn State legislation college database notes, the New Orleans archdiocese stands amongst greater than a dozen Catholic establishments who’ve sought chapter safety, principally to dispense with lawsuits stemming from the worldwide church’s clergy abuse scandal.
Revelations spurred by the New Orleans archdiocese’s chapter case have triggered a Louisiana state police investigation into whether or not the group ran a toddler sex-trafficking ring that inflicted “widespread … abuse of minors relationship again a long time” that was “coated up and never reported” to legislation enforcement, in line with statements sworn below oath by authorities. Not one of the archdiocese’s highest-ranking members – previous or current – had been charged in that investigation as of Thursday.
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