Queens Priest Accused of Swapping Nudes with Teenage Boy: Feds

By Maya Kaufman
Patch.com
July 30, 2020

https://patch.com/new-york/foresthills/queens-priest-accused-swapping-nudes-teenage-boy-feds

St. Pancras Church in Glendale, Queens. (Google Maps)

GLENDALE, QUEENS — A Queens priest was arrested by the FBI Wednesday after investigators caught him swapping sexually explicit texts and nudes with a 15-year-old boy on the dating app Grindr.

Francis Hughes, the pastor at St. Pancras Church in Glendale, was charged with receiving child pornography for the explicit exchanges, federal prosecutors said.

Hughes, 65, is accused of sending the Westchester teen photos of his genitals and trying to meet up with him for sex, according to Manhattan federal court records.

Prosecutors said Hughes told the boy he was a part-time college professor and a counselor.

"How would you like to be spoiled by your grandpa?" Hughes wrote in one of the exchanges, which unfolded in February, prosecutors said.

In another text, Hughes wrote, "Btw, to protect us, you should be sure to delete our chats when we are done."

Prosecutors said Hughes also admitted to having a sexual encounter with a different underage boy at a Queens high school and attempting to arrange similar meetups with other teens.

The name of the school was not publicly disclosed.

"We expect adults, especially those in positions of trust like Francis Hughes, to protect our children, not victimize them," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said. "Sadly, these allegations demonstrate there are still predators out there who abuse this trust."

A spokesperson for the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn said that Hughes has been removed from his post at the Glendale church, according to NBC4 New York.