A former Roman Catholic priest who spent decades on the run has been jailed for 30 years for sexually abusing a young altar boy in New Mexico.

Arthur Perrault, 81, touched his victim inappropriately as many as 100 times — starting when the boy, his pupil at an Albuquerque Catholic school, was just 10, the court heard.

But prosecutors claim it was just a “small fraction” of his crimes, saying he had many more victims — with some accusers giving testimony in the case to the pain he caused them.

“You will have to explain your actions to almighty God, and you will be held accountable,” one accuser told him from the stand, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

Assistant US Attorney Sean Sullivan called Perrault “one of the worst sex offenders and child predators in the history of New Mexico,” the paper said.

Perrault only arrived in New Mexico in the 1960s because church officials in Connecticut sent him to a center that treated priests accused of abuse, operated by the Servants of the Paraclete.

He finally fled New Mexico in 1992 “knowing he would soon be outed as a serial pedophile,” according to a sentencing memorandum obtained by the Journal.

He was eventually traced to Morocco, where he had been teaching for more than 20 years and, despite there being no extradition treaty between the countries, he was returned to the US in 2018.

Because the abuse happened on federally protected land — Kirtland Air Force Base and the Santa Fe National Cemetery — authorities were able to file charges with no statute of limitations.

Perrault — who has been in federal custody since arriving back in the US — pleaded not guilty and always maintained his innocence.

However, he was convicted in April of six counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact with a minor under 12.

After his sentencing Friday, US Attorney John Anderson said, “It is a long sentence but certainly a fitting one given the length of his conduct and devastating impact.”

Perrault is among more than 70 clergy members identified by the Santa Fe Archdiocese as credibly accused of abusing children in New Mexico, a scandal that has left the archdiocese in bankruptcy proceedings.

With Post wires