ROSEVILLE –

A Roseville preparatory school basketball coach has been arrested after players have come forward, alleging abuse.

Roseville Police say four student athletes who attend CCSE Preparatory Academy on Woodleaf Circle, a boarding school where foreign exchange students live and learn about basketball, are saying they were victims of abuse by their coach.

Francis Amiteye Ngissah, 24, was arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of child abuse involving cruel corporal punishment and willful cruelty, battery and false imprisonment.

Sergeant Darin DeFreece of the Roseville Police Department says they had heard of issues with the school before, but for academic reasons, not for abuse.

“They were punished, and had to stand in the corner for an extended period of time, with their hands and feet bound by zip-ties,” DeFreece told FOX40. “They also had clothes pins attached to their nipples.”

When asked if this was a sexually-related case because three of the players involved were teens, Sergeant DeFreece said, “it seems more sadistic to us.”

Neighbors we spoke with were too afraid to go on camera, but many say they knew the man who was arrested.

The Roseville Police Department says two others have come forward, with the same stories of abuse. Detectives are now urging anyone else to may have been a victim of abuse, to come forward.

Katie Hackett filed this report.