VALDOSTA, GA (WALB) -
A Valdosta church volunteer arrested on multiple child sex charges posted bond last night, and is free, as investigators try to determine if there are victims out there they don't know about.
Police say 28-year-old Kenneth Leonard met his victims at CrossPointe Church.
He's charged with abusing five young men, and two other potential victims recently came forward.
Kenneth Leonard turned himself in to the Lowndes County jail Friday night after the Valdosta Police Department obtained ten arrest warrants.
"We were made aware of this incident, or these allegations, because of parents, that were being good parents," said Commander Brian Childress, Valdosta Police Investigations.
Childress says Leonard met his victims at CrossPointe Church where he volunteered in the youth group, but he says none of the offenses took place at the church.
Church officials say Leonard had been apart of the church for the last five years, but in the past year he started slowly distancing himself from the youth group program.
Investigators say the allegations date back a year or more and right now there are five confirmed male victims and two more have just come forward, more charges may be coming. Church officials say they never saw this coming.
"It's one of those things, 15 days ago if you would of asked us if Kenny was capable of something like this we would have been shocked to hear and we were shocked to hear the first time. In terms of warning signs we do keep a close eye on things like that, if we would have had concerned parents or students coming to us beforehand, you know, but none of those red flags," said Michael Buffaloe, Exec. Pastor at CrossPointe Church.
Childress says right now the important thing is that the children are safe.
"We're at a point now where the kids are safe, the church as taken some action to insure the safety of the kids in the youth program," said Childress.
The church says they do extensive background checks on all volunteers and Leonard's came up clean. Leonard is charged with five counts of sexual battery, three counts of child molestation, and two counts of electronically furnishing obscene material to minors and he remains in the Lowndes County jail.
Valdosta Police are still investigating. If you have been a victim in this case, they want you to call them at 229-293-3145.
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