ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
February 21, 2019
By Rachel Rice
New assault charges have been filed alleging a priest assaulted a boy in the early 1990s in St. Louis County.
Fred Lenczycki, 74, now faces two charges of deviate sexual assault and two counts of sodomy.
Lenczycki is a known sexual predator with multiple allegations in three states that span several years during the time he was active as a priest.
He was removed from ministry in 2002 and later laicized.
He is currently listed in the Illinois sex offender registry as “sexually violent,” having been convicted of acts of aggravated sexual abuse against victims younger than 13 . He currently lives in Berkeley, Ill., in suburban Chicago.
According to the charges filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court on Thursday, between January 1991 and December 1994 Lenczycki abused a boy younger than 14 by grabbing his genitals on multiple occasions, and abused a second boy by trying to force the boy to expose himself. The abuse reportedly happened in the 12300 block of DePaul Drive in Bridgeton.
Online listings by a law firm that advocates for sexual abuse victims say he was assigned to the DePaul Health Center in that block in the 1990s and until 2002. Those listings also say Lenczycki’s other local assignments in the 1990s included the Church of North America Martyrs Rectory in Florissant and St. Blaise Parish in Maryland Heights in the 1990s.
Charging documents note that the abuse described by the victims “fits within the pattern of abuse perpetrated by the defendant over many years.”
In 2008, Lenczycki was the first clergy member committed under Illinois’ Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act, which allows prosecutors to seek commitment in a state facility of sex offenders they believe will re-offend.
David Clohessy, advocate for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said that while he knows of Lenczycki, the predator priest isn’t yet infamous enough. Parishioners deserve to know, he said.
“We’re deeply grateful to both the victim for having the courage to report and law enforcement for having the will to pursue charges,” Clohessy said. “He’s obviously a very dangerous man, and shame on every church official who knew of or suspected his crimes and ignored or hid them.”
Victim’s advocate Jeff Anderson said he had worked to bring at least half a dozen allegations against Lenczycki to light over the years.
“(Lenczycki) is an incredibly dangerous offender, and the more that can be known about him the more likely he will be put behind bars,” Anderson said. “The number of kids he actually violated is not known, but he’s among the most dangerous perverse serial predators.”
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