Police serve 5 arrest warrants vs. American priest for molesting 50 people

NCRPO Chief Police Director Guillermo Eleazar said Hendricks molested altar boys as young as seven years old. (Photo: PIO NCRPO/Facebook)

Authorities on Tuesday, February 19, served five warrants of arrest against an American priest for molesting 50 people, most of whom were altar boys.

The arrest warrants were served by joint elements of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Regional Special Operations Unit, Bureau of Immigration (BI) Fugitive Search Unit, and United States (U.S.) Department of Homeland Security to Fr. Kenneth Pius Hendricks at the Immigration bureau’s detention cell in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City where he was currently detained.

The warrants were issued by Judge Constantino Esber of the Naval, Biliran Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 16 over acts of lasciviousness and child abuse.

NCRPO Chief Police Director Guillermo Eleazar said Hendricks molested altar boys as young as seven years old.

In a report by INQUIRER.net, a 12-year-old altar boy who was allegedly one of the victims said Hendrick had been sexually abusing him since he was seven. He came forward after the priest “touched him again” on October 31, 2018.

The report added that the altar boy’s  22-year-old brother, who also served in church, also accused the priest of “sexually abusing him for years, even passing on to him a sexually transmitted disease in 2015.”

Eleazar said new victims had the urge to “openly accuse” Hendricks after learning that he was placed behind bars.

“They were afraid to come out in the open immediately because of grave threats from the priest,” Eleazar said.

“This arrest is another testament to the truism that the long arm of the law will always catch up with criminals. It may have taken some time for Hendricks to be indicted and arrested, but at the end of the day, he is where he should be – in jail,” he added.

Hendricks is now at the hands of the Special Operations Unit. He did not give comments on the allegations thrown against him.

The priest was first nabbed last December 2018 by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued against him by United States (U.S.) Judge Stephanie Bowman for “engaging in illicit sex with a minor in a foreign country.” The charge is punishable with up to to 30 years in prison.

Hendricks flew to the Philippines from Cincinnati, Ohio in 1968. He was ordained as a Franciscan priest and practiced his vocation at the St. Isidore the Worker Chapel in Talustosan Village in Biliran province.