NEW ORLEANS — A man working as a Roman Catholic priest in New Orleans positioned himself as a mentor to a young disabled boy grieving two family deaths – and then exploited the proximity to abuse him for years, police allege.

Those details are contained in criminal court records generated by in September as well as

Ford, 64, made an initial appearance in Criminal District Court on Wednesday as he became the latest figure to come under scrutiny during the New Orleans Catholic church’s long standing clergy molestation scandal.

A magistrate commissioner temporarily ordered Ford held without bail.

Ford is one of several men who have worked as Catholic clergymen in New Orleans to have been arrested by authorities in connection with child sexual abuse allegations after the city’s archdiocese

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