BOSTON (MA)
Boston.com
By Theo Emery, Associated Press Writer | September 21, 2005
BOSTON --When Robert Costello swam with his scout troop every Wednesday afternoon at a Jamaica Plain pool, he said, the priest who led the troop picked out boys among them to molest. Costello said he was sexually assaulted as he waded in the shallow end, and afterward raped in the locker room.
He buried the memories, and it wasn't until he was in his 30s that Costello, now 44, began to confront what happened to him as a child. By then, the statute of limitations for criminal charges and for civil claims had expired long before.
Costello and other adult victims of child sexual abuse pleaded with lawmakers on Wednesday to lift the state statute of limitations on civil claims for sexual crimes against children, saying it takes years, even decades, for children to confront their abuse and their abusers.
Though Costello sued and settled with the church, he said that the law must be changed so that abusers can be held accountable.
"Passing this bill will give children like me a fighting chance when they do determine what happened and how it affected their lives," he told the Judiciary Committee on Beacon Hill on Wednesday.