Catholic priest accused of sexual misconduct charged over child abuse images

A Catholic priest under criminal investigation for sexual misconduct with multiple women – and consequently prohibited from ministering in two states – has been charged with illegally possessing child abuse imagery depicting girls.

Anthony Odiong was arrested Tuesday as he was leaving his home in Ave Maria, Florida, on a warrant obtained by police in Waco, Texas, charging him with possessing child abuse images showing disrobed children. According to sworn statements in support of the arrest warrant that were obtained by the Guardian, police said they discovered the illicit pictures while investigating complaints from at least four women that made officers aware Odiong, 55, could be “a potential serial sexual assault suspect”.

The Waco police statements say that at least some of the women’s complaints are too old to prosecute due to statutes of limitation. But the police said statutes of limitation in Texas are irrelevant if “probable cause exists to believe that the defendant has committed the same or similar sex offense against five or more victims”. And they have asked anyone with information about Odiong to contact them as they weigh the possibility of charging him with the women’s complaints.

Odiong drew media scrutiny that eventually landed him on the police’s radar in February, when the Roman Catholic diocese of Austin – which administers Waco’s church institutions – revealed he was removed of his ability to minister there in 2019.

That revelation came nearly two months after Louisiana’s most important diocese had similarly suspended him. The suspensions stemmed from complaints by women – including two he encountered while they were at the Baylor University campus in Waco – who publicly accused Odiong of trying to use his influence as a priest to pursue sexual contact they either did not welcome or could not consent to participating in.

Texas is one of about a dozen states with a law that says it is impossible for there to be a consensual relationship between clergymen and adults who emotionally depend on their spiritual advice.

And in March, less than a month after the Guardian published a report detailing how the prior allegations against him ranged from sexual coercion and groping to fiscal abuse, an unidentified person walked into the Waco police department and accused Odiong of sexually assaulting her in 2012.

Police subsequently secured judicial permission to access an email account belonging to Odiong and found messages from another woman who had never come forward explicitly detailing sexual encounters with the priest, including one where her colon was injured.

Investigators later spoke with the woman, who “came forward to admit that” she had met Odiong under “the same circumstances” and been subjected to some of the behavior his prior accusers had, according to the police’s sworn statements.

From there, a judge permitted police to search Odiong’s iCloud online data storage account. Waco police detective Bradley DeLange later wrote under oath that he “discovered images depicting a clearly prepubescent child”, which had been saved to the account in September 2020.

DeLange said there were also “two images of what is believed to be [another] child” with what appears to be an adult touching an unclothed body part.

While none of the images show the face of a child, DeLange said it was evident that at least some of the images displayed someone “under 10 years of age which … may enhance the eligible punishment that may be assessed”.

McClennan county, Texas, judge Thomas C West on 5 July signed off on DeLange’s request for a warrant to arrest Odiong in connection with the child abuse imagery, records show. The judge’s suggested bail was $1m.

Attempts to contact an attorney who has previously represented Odiong was not immediately successful.

Kristi Schubert, an attorney for most of the women who have spoken out against Odiong, said she hopes the cleric’s arrest convinces “Catholic leaders that priests who sexually abuse adults can no longer be given a free pass”.

“A predator is a predator,” Schubert said. “And if they will sexually exploit an adult, they aren’t safe around children either.”

It was not immediately clear when Odiong – who was clad in clerical garb at the time of his arrest – may be transferred to the custody of Waco police from Immokalee. He would be sentenced to at least 15 years in prison if eventually convicted of possessing child abuse imagery depicting a minor younger than 10.

Revival of questions

The charges against Odiong are almost certain to revive questions about the way Catholic church bureaucrats have managed his career, which began with his ordination in the diocese of Uyo, Nigeria, in 1993.

When it suspended him from ministry in 2019, the Austin diocese did not disclose that move to the public – but later the organization assured congregants that it had provided notification to Catholic church leaders in south-east Louisiana, where Odiong was allowed to work until this past December.

That’s when the New Orleans archdiocese declared that it had banned Odiong from ministering in its community, too. The archdiocese emphasized at the time that the allegations against Odiong exclusively involved adults – since May 2020, the institution has been in federal bankruptcy court trying to dispense of a mound of litigation associated with a decades-old clergy child molestation scandal.

The decision to remove Odiong from New Orleans’s archdiocese was the responsibility of the city’s archbishop, Gregory Aymond. As bishop of Austin in an earlier assignment, Aymond had invited Odiong to minister there beginning in 2006.

Aymond later became archbishop of New Orleans, and he invited Odiong to work there as well.

Over the years in Texas and Louisiana, Odiong was tasked with working at a church in Luling, Louisiana, south-west of New Orleans, as well as the St Peter Catholic Student Center – which is on Baylor’s outskirts and ministers to students of that university as well as McLennan community college.

Odiong was able to build a loyal following in the US in large part by claiming he had a special understanding with the Virgin Mary through prayer. The charismatic clergyman would hold so-called healing masses after which some parishioners reported recovering from major medical ailments, improving church attendance as well as boosting his popularity with both congregants and diocesan officials.

But cracks in the public image Odiong fostered began to form when one woman whom he encountered at Baylor reported him for making an unwanted sexual advance toward her shortly after she emerged from the sacrament of confession.

A second woman whom Odiong met at Baylor then recounted how he pressured her to leave her troubled marriage and enter into a “spiritual marriage” with him, at one point forcefully kissing her on the mouth and groping her.

A third woman from Pennsylvania who met Odiong while he studied for a master’s degree in theology from Franciscan University in Ohio alleged that he coerced her into an abusive, cross-state relationship from 2007 through 2018.

She said Odiong forced her to perform oral sex on him as well as give him significant sums of money. She said she could not consent to sexual activity with Odiong – or willingly give him money – because he was her spiritual adviser.

Those three women eventually told their stories to the Guardian as well as various church and law enforcement officials. In particular, the third of those women sought damages from New Orleans’s archdiocese through its bankruptcy proceedings in 2021 while also reporting him to the sheriff’s office which patrols Luling.

A sheriff’s office report obtained by the Guardian explains that the New Orleans archdiocese’s general counsel, Susan Zeringue, claimed she was not even given the complaint in question to investigate until this past December. The sheriff’s office ultimately concluded that there was not enough evidence to establish that a crime had occurred.

Notably, unlike Texas, Louisiana does not automatically criminalize sexual contact between a clergyman and an adult parishioner – in the way it does, respectively, between teachers and students of age as well as corrections officers and incarcerated grown-ups, given the inherently imbalanced power dynamics at play.

Nonetheless, at that point, the New Orleans archdiocese revoked permission to minister in its region from Odiong – who, like all Catholic priests, had promised to remain celibate. And that expulsion garnered enough media attention to trigger the Waco police investigation which led to his arrest.

Waco police have since sworn that Odiong would inflict sexually abusive acts against his accusers during private masses he celebrated with them or in sessions dedicated to spiritual counseling – all while “wearing priest wardrobe items”. He would then communicate constantly with his accusers over email, Facebook and text messages, Waco police said in documents.

‘All things shall be revealed’

The case against Odiong is among multiple pending criminal matters with links to New Orleans’ archdiocese.

A prominent one centers on a search warrant that Louisiana state police served on the archdiocese in April as part of an investigation into whether the institution and its leaders had operated as a child-sex trafficking ring responsible for “widespread sexual abuse of minors dating back decades” that was “covered up and not reported to law enforcement”.

Whether Odiong’s arrest attracts much interest from the Louisiana state troopers investigating the archdiocese with which he most recently worked remains to be seen.

But what Odiong has already made known is his defiance to the allegations against him.

Odiong told his followers that Austin and New Orleans church officials had run him out over his opposition to Pope Francis’s attempts to be more welcoming to LGBTQ+ people, who are not allowed to marry within the Catholic church.

He also apparently ignored orders to return to his home diocese of Uyo and openly boasted about having plans to work at a Catholic university whose campus is about one mile away from the $400,000 home outside of which Odiong was arrested.

His most recent Facebook post was an open letter in which he accused the Guardian of carrying out “a false, salacious, one-sided smear campaign” against him. He also said he looked forward to pursuing “any and all legal remedies” to clear his name as well as to “continue to faithfully serve God’s people”.

Odiong’s post generated about 180 generally supportive comments, including one which implored Odiong to “believe, in time, all things shall be revealed, all things shall be exposed”.

After Odiong’s arrest Tuesday, Waco attorneys Christopher King and Robert Callahan reportedly announced that they would sue both the priest and the Austin diocese for damages on behalf of one of the clergyman’s accusers.

The Waco police detective investigating Odiong, DeLange, said anyone with information that may be helpful to him can reach him by telephone at (254) 750-7609.

“If you have been victimized by Anthony Odiong anywhere in the United States, we need to hear from you,” said DeLange, who assured that the privacy of any new cooperating witnesses would be protected. “You are not alone, and you do not have to continue to live with the trauma of this experience alone.”

• In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International