Indian priest pleads guilty to sex assault charge in US

An Indian-ordained priest has pleaded guilty to a sex assault charge in the U.S. state of Michigan.

The Rev. Johnson Jeyabal Pappusamy, 38, began serving a 30-day jail sentence after entering a plea to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in Mason County Circuit Court, according to The Grand Rapids Press.

The Mason County priest had earlier resigned from his post after accused of "inappropriate conduct in public with an adult". His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 18.

According to reports, Pappusamy allegedly touched a 28-year-old man inappropriately at the Ludington Meijer store on Feb. 11.

The 38-year-old Catholic priest was pastor of St. Mary Catholic Church in Custer and St. Jerome Catholic Church in Scottville before he was removed. In 2007, he served at Our Lady of Consolation Church in Rockford.

Pappusamy was ordained in the Diocese of Sivagangai in 1998 as a priest in the Rome-based Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales.

The Rev. Augustine Tharappel, regional superior of the order, earlier said Pappusamy is in the U.S. temporarily to serve the Grand Rapids Diocese.

"He will go back to India when that service period is over," Tharappel said. "Now that some issues have come, he may have to go back earlier."

"There have never been any complaints about him before," Tharappel added. "He was a good priest."