Yawata, Japan - Christian cult leader Tamotsu Nagata, the suspected rapist of several elementary school age girls, was arrested on Wednesday, police said.
Nagata, 61, is accused of luring the little girls into his clutches and raping them, telling them that they were undergoing a religious ceremony.
Nagata is being investigated over several allegations of rape, but the head of the Seishin Chuo Kyokai church has denied the accusations.
Police said that the specific charge for which Nagata was arrested occurred on Jan. 13, 2002, when he took into a church room a 12-year-old girl he knew was under 13, the age of consent, and raped her, telling the girl she was taking part in a holy ceremony.
Police said Nagata continued raping the same girl at various times up until the autumn of last year.
In December last year, the mother of another girl who claims to have been raped by Nagata contacted the police.
Crime fighters launched an investigation into the Christian priest's actions and arrested him early Wednesday morning.
Nagata's Seishin Chuo Kyokai was formed in Kyoto in January 1986. It became a religious foundation in December the following year, exempting it from taxation. It built its current church in Yawata between 1999 and 2000.
Seishin Chuo Kyokai has 10 churches across the nation in prefectures such as Osaka, Hyogo and Tokyo.
The church claims it has about 3,000 officially registered members. At its peak, it once attracted crowds of about 500 to Sunday services, but membership has declined and it is now more common for only about 100 people to turn up.