Buddhist Priest Charged with Sexual Assault

By Lindsay Smith
NBC Chicago
May 15, 2012

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/buddhist-priest-camnong-bual-ubol-sexual-assault-charges-151596285.html


A Buddhist priest is accused of sexually assaulting and fathering a child with an underage girl during his time at Wat Dhammaram Temple in Stickney Township.

Camnong Bual Ubol, 61, was arrested Friday evening in Anchorage, Ala. and charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault, according to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

In October of 2011, Cook County Sheriff's police were contacted by Barbara Blaine, a member of the Survivor's Network for those Abused by Priests, regarding a then 15-year-old girl who had allegedly been impregnated by Ubol.

The investigators quickly uncovered a paternity test that proved the baby had in fact been fathered by the priest, officials said. The paternity test had been completed in 2010, but had not been turned over to authorities until the investigation.

Ubol had moved from Stickney Township after the incident to the Wat Buddhavipassana Temple in Long Beach, Calif., however police learned from sources that he had since moved on, apparently to Anchorage, Ala.

The FBI found and arrested him at his new job working as a dishwasher in Anchorage.

At a hearing in Anchorage on Monday, Ubol chose not to waive extradition back to Cook County, according to the Cook County Sheriff's office. The sheriff's office requested he be held without bond, but he was ordered held on a $30,000 cash bond with a third party custodian requirement, the release said.

Ubol is being held in the Anchorage Correctional Center East, in Anchorage, where his next hearing is set for June 14.

Ubol was born in the Pissanulok Province of Thailand, but is a U.S. citizen who has been a Buddhist priest since 1995.