Church faces huge bill after record payout
Birmingham, England, United Kingdom --
The Catholic Church could be forced to pay out millions of pounds after the High Court yesterday awarded recorded damages to a West Midlands man who, during his childhood, was sexually abused by a priest.
The victim, now 35, was abused for more than ten years between the ages of seven and 18 by Father Christopher Clonan, his parish priest at Christ The King Church in Coventry.
The man, who now suffers from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder, was awarded more than £600,000 in compensation by the High Court in Manchester yesterday after the Church admitted liability.
Lawyers for the claimant, known as 'A', said the ruling against the Archbishop of Birmingham and the Trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church was "a landmark decision".
It was the first case against the Catholic Church to reach a British court, with all previous complaints having been settled at an earlier stage.
With legal costs expected to spiral to more than £400,000, the total fee will be more than £1 million - thought to be the biggest award of its kind in the UK.
The ruling means that Clonan, who fled to Australia where he died in 1998, has cost the Church nearly £1.5 million.
Read the article at icBirmingham Dated July 1, 2005
Search the web for this article
The Catholic Church could be forced to pay out millions of pounds after the High Court yesterday awarded recorded damages to a West Midlands man who, during his childhood, was sexually abused by a priest.
The victim, now 35, was abused for more than ten years between the ages of seven and 18 by Father Christopher Clonan, his parish priest at Christ The King Church in Coventry.
The man, who now suffers from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder, was awarded more than £600,000 in compensation by the High Court in Manchester yesterday after the Church admitted liability.
Lawyers for the claimant, known as 'A', said the ruling against the Archbishop of Birmingham and the Trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church was "a landmark decision".
It was the first case against the Catholic Church to reach a British court, with all previous complaints having been settled at an earlier stage.
With legal costs expected to spiral to more than £400,000, the total fee will be more than £1 million - thought to be the biggest award of its kind in the UK.
The ruling means that Clonan, who fled to Australia where he died in 1998, has cost the Church nearly £1.5 million.
Read the article at icBirmingham Dated July 1, 2005
posted by God Almighty Himself at 4:05 AM
Translate this post:
Spanish | Italian | French | German | Portuguese | Chinese | Korean | Japanese
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home