Historic clerical abuse hearing in London's Supreme Court

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Obviously, another major blow for the church. The case is the largest of its kind in Britain and compensation and legal costs could run to millions of pounds.

rte.ie/news/2012/0723/london-court-abuse.html

The Supreme Court in London has begun hearing legal arguments in an historic abuse case involving the Catholic diocese of Middlesborough and the De La Salle Brothers.

They ran St William’s boys home in Yorkshire where children were sexually abused between 1960 and 1992.

The case involves over 150 claimants, many of whom say they were abused by former headmaster Br James Carragher.

He was sentenced in 2004 to 14 years for abusing boys at St William’s and has a previous conviction for sex abuse.

The institution has since closed down and the buildings have been converted into a mental health facility.

St William’s was staffed by De La Salle brothers, but the High Court and the Court of Appeal have ruled the ultimate control lay with the Catholic Diocese of Middlesborough.

The Supreme Court is being asked to rule on the question of the liability of the two organisations.

David Greenwood, the solicitor representing the victims of abuse said the Catholic Church in England had for years tried to escape liability for its priests and members and that he hoped this case would decide the issues once and for all.

Austen Ivereigh, a spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Middelesborough, told RTÉ News that the diocese accepted partial liability because it was the nominal employer.

He that, however, that the day to day running of St William’s had been in the hands of the De La Salle Brothers and that they should bear the main part of the responsibility and liability.

The case is the largest of its kind in Britain and compensation and legal costs could run to millions of pounds.

A decision from the Supreme Court is expected by October.
 
Another sad blow to the Body of Christ.😦
But on the other hand, it appears the ‘sad blow’ happened decades ago.

I hope what is happening now is a point of healing for those who were hurt, including the Church herself.
 
But on the other hand, it appears the ‘sad blow’ happened decades ago.

I hope what is happening now is a point of healing for those who were hurt, including the Church herself.
Yup cash has a healing effect for sure (especially for the lawyers and activists), especially lots of cash! Ka-ching!

Now the Church can close soup kitchens, developing world missions, schools and hospitals and pay these people off so they can get some retail therapy. I only wonder if victims of child abuse perpetrated by teachers or victims of child abuse perpetrated by other people due to failure of the social system and those who were let down by the police i.e. the government can also sue the living daylights out of the State and get their retail therapy going. (Of course I do acknowledge that in some cases people are genuinely ill as a consequence of abuse and need care and treatment.) But massive lawsuits are ridiculous and should not occur, especially not in a European country.

In fact I think every victim of any crime should sue the State for not securing them from being victimised in the first place, after all it’s the State’s job too.
 
Fair point, Tenofovir. For sure, the lawyers are having a field day! And, of course, the facilities, though run by Church members, acted on behalf of the local Social Services, whose job it should have been to have checked on the welfare of the children… so why aren’t they being sued???

But the healing I referred to was as much that of the Church as of the victims.
 
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