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Fugitive New Mexico Priest Accused In Abuse Case Arrested

 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A fugitive priest accused of child abuse decades ago in New Mexico has been arrested.

Court documents show 80-year-old Arthur J. Perrault was arrested Thursday in New York, and has been charged with criminal aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact in assaults that federal authorities say happened at Kirtland Airforce Base and Santa Fe National Cemetery.

He is scheduled for a first federal court appearance Friday in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Perrault had been a chaplain at the base in Albuquerque.

He vanished in 1992, just days before an attorney filed two lawsuits against the archdiocese alleging Perrault had sexually assaulted seven children at his parish.

Perrault turned up last year in Morocco, working at an English-language school for children, where he was subsequently fired.