TYLER (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Associated Press
TYLER, Texas – An ex-priest who fled to South America six years ago to avoid trial in East Texas pleaded guilty Friday in the sexual assault of a teenage parishioner. He confessed to the FBI that he had sex with the altar girl at least twice a week for six months.
Gustavo DeJesus Cuello, former head priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, faces an Oct. 20 sentencing trial.
Cuello, 40, was accused of engaging in sexual intercourse with the 13-year-old girl between June 1996 and January 1997 – including before choir practice and Sunday services. He was arrested in July in Guayaguil, Equador, and was deported.
The victim, now 21, testified that Cuello convinced her she was willed to him by God, telling her that her parents did not love her. She and her parents recounted the ordeal that estranged them from the Catholic religion and forced them to live in fear until Cuello was captured.
