The American Catholic priest Kenneth Hendricks, who was allegedly guilty of 50 counts of sexual exploitation of young boys over a period of decades, has now been served five more warrants this last Tuesday, February 19, 2019, at his cell in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City. The said suspect has been detained and is now under the custody of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).
With the help of joint task force of local police and U.S. Homeland Security Agents, Hendricks was arrested last December 5, 2018 in Biliran, Leyte and was immediately transferred to the Bureau of Immigration detention facility in Bicutan, Taguig City. The priest is now facing federal charges for “engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign country”.
With charges of “acts of lasciviousness”, the 77-year old priest received five new warrants issued by Judge Constantino Esber of Biliran Regional Trial Court Branch 16. The suspect, working in the village chapel in town of Naval, was said to be ordained as a Franciscan priest.
However, according to the official statement by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in a website www.cincinnati.com, Mr. Hendricks was “never a priest in Cincinnati or the United States”. According also to the statement released, the arrested priest “wasn’t ordained until after he had moved to the Philippines where he has worked for the past 37 years”. Meanwhile, according to the Enquirer archives, Hendricks joined the Franciscan order locally and received his “Franciscan robes” in 1962 at the St. Anthony Friary in Mount Airy.
“To the best of our knowledge, he was ordained to the priesthood in the Philippines to serve in a diocese there. He has never had any assignment in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati,” the statement continued.
Hendricks is alleged to have sexually abused boys as young as 12, and police say that additional allegations continue to be investigated. He is now being held in Manila. Accused of abusing seven victims, Henricks was said to have been molesting young boys who served as altar boys in Naval.
“It is both shocking and appalling”, said the spokeswoman for Philippine Bureau of Immigration Dana Sandoval. “The victims were in his house and the abuses were committed while he was taking a bath with each of them,” Sandoval also added.