{"id":35232,"date":"2026-07-23T16:26:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=35232"},"modified":"2026-07-23T17:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:30:20","slug":"catholic-father-anthony-odiong-sentenced-to-life-imprisonment-for-sexual-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/catholic-father-anthony-odiong-sentenced-to-life-imprisonment-for-sexual-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Father Anthony Odiong Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Sexual Assault"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>By: A. M. Archibong Esq<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"360\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 640 \/ 360;\" width=\"640\" controls src=\"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/WhatsApp-Video-2026-07-23-at-3.55.59-PM.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Someone asked, &#8221; why did Father Anthony Odiong go to jail when the world en were all consenting adults?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Father Anthony Odiong did not go to prison simply because he broke his vow of celibacy or had sex with adults. Breaking the Catholic Church&#8217;s rules is a church matter, not a criminal offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The criminal case was about something different. The jury found that he used his position as a priest and spiritual adviser to exploit women who were emotionally dependent on him. Under Texas law, that can make what appears to be &#8220;consensual&#8221; sex legally invalid because the law recognizes that someone in a position of authority can manipulate or exploit another person&#8217;s ability to freely consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Think of it this way: the law treats some professional relationships differently because of the imbalance of power and trust. A person cannot use that position to obtain sex from someone who is under their care or emotionally dependent on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"942\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a1f0efa16d86.image_.jpg?fit=696%2C546&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-35238\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.2747331368228259;width:667px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a1f0efa16d86.image_.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a1f0efa16d86.image_.jpg?resize=300%2C236&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a1f0efa16d86.image_.jpg?resize=1024%2C804&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a1f0efa16d86.image_.jpg?resize=768%2C603&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a1f0efa16d86.image_.jpg?resize=535%2C420&amp;ssl=1 535w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a1f0efa16d86.image_.jpg?resize=696%2C546&amp;ssl=1 696w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a1f0efa16d86.image_.jpg?resize=1068%2C838&amp;ssl=1 1068w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This principle doesn&#8217;t apply only to clergy. Texas law also recognizes similar issues involving other positions of trust, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mental health professionals and their patients.<br>Health care providers and their patients.<br>Correctional officers and inmates.<br>Juvenile detention staff and juveniles in their custody.<br>Probation or parole officers and the people they supervise.<br>Some law enforcement officers and people in custody.<br>Teachers and certain students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The issue was not simply that adults had sex. The issue was whether Father Odiong abused his position of trust and authority to obtain sexual acts. The jury concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that he did, which is why he was convicted under Texas law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: A. M. Archibong Esq Someone asked, &#8221; why did Father Anthony Odiong go to jail when the world en were all consenting adults?&#8221; Father Anthony Odiong did not go to prison simply because he broke his vow of celibacy or had sex with adults. Breaking the Catholic Church&#8217;s rules is a church matter, not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5,3,23],"tags":[21477,1004,83,21475,21476,21474,21478,20324,21392,652],"class_list":["post-35232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-naija-news","category-video","tag-anthony-odiong","tag-breaking-news","tag-catholic-church","tag-catholic-father-anthony-odiong","tag-child-sexual-abuse","tag-clergy-abuse","tag-court-verdict","tag-crime-news","tag-life-imprisonment","tag-sexual-assault"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35232"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35240,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35232\/revisions\/35240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}