US priest held over abuse

A77-year-old US priest accused of sexual abuse in his home country was arrested in the Philippines yesterday, an immigration bureau spokeswoman said.

Father Kenneth Bernard Hendricks was apprehended by agents of the Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration and US Homeland Security in the island town of Biliran.

Hendricks, who has been serving in a church in Biliran for more than 37 years, “has a standing warrant of arrest in the US for engaging in illicit sexual conduct,” said Dana Sandoval, a spokeswoman for the immigration bureau.

He is accused of molesting and raping more than 50 victims, most of whom were sacristans, some as young as seven years old, Sandoval said, citing information from the US agents.

Hendricks was immediately flown to Manila, where he would face deportation.

Last year, the Philippine government extradited defrocked Filipino Catholic priest Fernando Sayasaya, who was accused of sexually abusing two boys in the United States in the 1990s.