BishopAccountability.org
	£5M Claim over Sex Abuse by Jesuit Priest Can Go Ahead By Afua Hirsch The Guardian May 5, 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/05/sex-abuse-claim-jesuit-priest A lawyer who suffered years of regular sexual abuse by a Jesuit priest as a child was told today that his claim for up to ?5m compensation against a Catholic school can proceed. Patrick Raggett, now 50, was told by the high court in London it accepted that the late Father Michael Spencer abused him while he attended Preston Catholic College in the 1970s. The court heard the priest "took every opportunity to get him on his own and … require him to remove his clothes after which he would touch him sexually and observe and film him in various degrading positions". In a written judgment on the first part of the case, Mrs Justice Swift said that Raggett should be allowed to claim compensation against the school in Lancashire despite more than 28 years having passed since he left. "I have no doubt that the claimant was the victim of a sustained course of sexual abuse and assaults by Father Spencer," the judge said. Raggett, who told the court that he realised he had been the victim of abuse after suffering a breakdown in 2005, said he had underperformed academically and at work, struggled to form intimate relationships and had become a binge drinker. Spencer, who taught French and religious education at the Lancashire boys' school and coached the football team, singled out the smallest boys and would make them strip naked and measure their body parts, Raggett said. The priest used football coaching to spend time alone with Raggett, rubbing his genitals and taking photographs of him naked. Raggett told the court that Spencer, who died in 2000, was known for his fixation on the pupil. Raggett's mother, a devout Catholic, told the court she had been concerned about Spencer's "singular and obsessive" behaviour towards her son but that "the possibility of a priest abusing a boy in his care was inconceivable at that time". The court ruled in favour of Raggett's account after hearing from 11 other pupils at the school and a psychiatrist who said that Raggett exhibited features of an "enduring personality change consequent upon a traumatic experience". "The people who allowed this to happen – and who were quite happy to see it swept under the carpet – have been held responsible at last," Raggett said. "For all the warm words from the Jesuit Order about co-operating in this case, the reality is they fought it tooth and nail without regard for my feelings. The Jesuit Order, the Catholic Church generally, is still not accepting legal and moral responsibility." A spokesman for the British Jesuits said: "The Society of Jesus accepts with deep sorrow the judgment given. The Society of Jesus abhors the abusive behaviour which the judge finds that Father Michael Spencer committed against Mr Raggett in the 1970s. The Society further regrets any damage which this behaviour may have done to Mr Raggett." The case is believed to be the first of its kind against the Jesuit order in the UK.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.