The Latest: Attorney: US priest lived with multiple boys

CINCINNATI – The Latest on a U.S. priest accused of abusing altar boys in the Philippines (all times local):

1:50 p.m.

The U.S. attorney for Ohio’s southern district says an American priest accused of sexual abuse in the Philippines lived with multiple boys and insisted they bathe with him.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman said Thursday that victims told investigators that Rev. Kenneth Bernard Hendricks would kiss them, touch their genitals and initiate sex. He says one victim reported more than 40 sexual encounters with the priest.

Glassman says the 77-year-old Cincinnati native is charged with engaging in illicit sexual conduct. Federal court records do not show an attorney for Hendricks who could comment on the charges.

Records show Hendricks returns to the U.S. yearly and has a residence in Cincinnati. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati issued a statement saying Hendricks is not a local priest.

Glassman urged other victims to come forward.

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1 a.m.

Philippine immigration authorities say they have arrested an American Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting altar boys in a remote central town in a case one official described as “shocking and appalling.”

Bureau of Immigration spokeswoman Dana Sandoval says the Rev. Kenneth Bernard Hendricks, who has been indicted in Ohio for illicit sexual conduct in the Philippines, was arrested Wednesday in a church in Naval town in the island province of Biliran.

Sandoval said Thursday that an Ohio court had issued a warrant for the arrest of 77-year-old Hendricks, who has been living in the Philippines for 37 years.

She says the suspect allegedly abused seven victims in 50 counts of molestation in his residence in a case that’s “both shocking and appalling.”