![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede.jpg "Anthony Odiong: Nigerian Catholic priest sentenced to life in prison over sexual assault")
Fr. Anthony Odiong, a Roman Catholic priest, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday after being found guilty of felony sexual assault, according to local prosecutors and representatives of the 19th District Court in Waco, Texas.
On Friday, a jury convicted priest Anthony Odiong of one act of first-degree sexual assault and two charges of second-degree sexual assault. On Tuesday, the same panel sentenced him.
A months-long investigation in 2024 turned out nine women who claimed Father Odiong sexually molested them while acting as their priest, according to Ryan Calvert, a prosecutor with the McLennan County district attorney’s office. He stated that one more woman was uncovered in 2025.
According to the Waco Police Department, DNA evidence produced by prosecutors prior to the trial indicated that Father Odiong had almost probably become the father of a child as a result of the abuse.
During the investigation, Odiong, a native of Nigeria, was arrested in Florida in July 2024 while in possession of child pornography, Mr. Calvert said.
However, he said, a “strategic legal decision” was made to indict Father Odiong that September only on the sexual assault charges, which are more serious.
On Tuesday, Odiong, 57, was sentenced to life in prison on the first-degree sexual assault charge and to two 20-year terms for the second-degree sexual assault charges. He was also fined $30,000.
“We are delighted with the jury’s verdict,” Mr. Calvert said on Tuesday. “It is a huge relief to have citizens willing to stand up and to hear victims of sexual abuse in any context, but particularly in this context when the victims’ faith was used as a weapon against them.”
According to Texas law, sexual assault occurs when a clergy member engages in sexual behavior with another person who is emotionally dependent on the clergy member as a “spiritual adviser.”
Consent is effectively impossible in such settings, according to Gerald R. Villarrial, Father Odiong’s lawyer. Mr. Villarrial, who had argued for Father Odiong’s probation, called the jury’s verdict “disappointing” and announced that his client will appeal.
In April 2024, Father Odiong denied the claims against him, at least some of which had surfaced during The Guardian’s February probe.
In a Facebook post, he described them as “false” and “salacious” and the result of a “one-sided smear campaign,” adding that he will “continue to faithfully serve God’s people in obedience to my bishop in Nigeria.”
Father Odiong worked at St. Peter Catholic Student Center in Waco and St. Mary’s Church of the Assumption in West, Texas, from 2007 to 2012, according to Waco police. He also served in Luling, Louisiana, a New Orleans suburb, from about 2015 to 2023.
One of Father Odiong’s victims, identified in court as Mary Doe, reached out to the police after the February report, which helped kick-start the authorities’ monthslong investigation.
Later, in court, she described the assaults she had endured at his hands. She had been violently raped, she said in a victim impact statement.
“They were soul murder,” she said.
