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Corey Bryant, a missionary worker from Norton, is charged with molesting three boys while working and living in Honduras.

(File photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A mission worker from Summit County who helped run a home for boys in Honduras is charged with sexually molesting three children who lived in the home.

Corey Bryant, 25, of Norton, was arrested Wednesday after he admitted to a Department of Homeland Security agent that he molested the boys while they slept in a bed with him, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Cleveland.

The abuse took place between 2011 and 2014, and the boys were between 9 and 15 years old, the affidavit states. He is charged with three counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in foreign places.

Bryant lived in Honduras during those years, doing humanitarian work for Breaking Chains Honduras, an Oklahoma-based Christian missionary group that runs a homeless ministry in Tegucigalpa, the nation's capital. He taught at Interamerican School, a bilingual K-9 private school in the same city.

The affidavit does not name the missionary group or the school, but does list an email address affiliated with Breaking Chains Honduras. Newsletters on the group's website identify Bryant as affiliated with the group and as a teacher at the school.

Bryant made his first court appearance Wednesday, with his mother and father looking on. Magistrate Judge Kenneth McHargh ordered that he be held until at least Monday afternoon, when the judge will hold a hearing to determine whether Bryant should be free while his case is pending.

Prosecutors are expected to present the case to a federal grand jury.

Jacqueline Johnson, Bryant's federal public defender, declined to comment after Wednesday's court proceeding.

Nobody at Breaking Chains answered when a reporter called Thursday morning. An email was not immediately returned.

According to the affidavit:

On Dec. 16, the ministry's director left a tip on the Immigration & Customs Enforcement website saying Bryant inappropriately touched a 12-year-old boy during a sleepover in 2011.

The director told the agent that Bryant came back to the U.S. on Nov. 26 to visit family during a break from school. The director of homeless ministry and the director of the home for boys flew to Ohio on Dec. 14 to confront Bryant with the allegation.

When confronted, Bryant would not confirm or deny what happened. He seemed amenable to counseling and agreed not to do any more work for the ministry.

On Jan. 3, the director told Homeland Security that two more boys, now 13 and 15, said Bryant had inappropriately touched them regularly over the past year. The 13-year-old said he had a very close relationship with Bryant.

The agent interviewed Bryant three days later and he denied sexually abusing any children. However, he said he was coming to terms with the fact that the allegations had dashed any hopes of him ever teaching children again.

The agent traveled to Honduras in early March and interviewed the victims and witnesses.

The victims said the abuse started in 2011. The directors of the ministry and boys home said Bryant would sometimes give two of the victims money and small gifts, though he "clearly favored" one of the boys and invited the boy to go places with him alone or watch movies with him.

Bryant was supposed to return to Honduras on Christmas Day.