By John Chapman
Daily Express
May 6, 2009
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/99175/-Abused-lawyer-to-sue-Jesuits-for-5m
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| Abuse ruined me, says Patrick Raggett |
A FORMER City lawyer who claims his life and career were ruined by sexual abuse he received as a schoolboy over 33 years ago was given the go-ahead yesterday to sue the Jesuit Order for £5million.
Patrick Raggett, 50, claims he was subjected to years of “insidious” abuse at the Jesuit-run Preston Catholic College, Lancashire, between 1969 and 1976.
Mr Raggett, of Fulham, west London, says that after leaving school he suffered years of under-achievement at work, a failed marriage and became a binge-drinker.
When he received therapy for a breakdown in 2005 he was able to connect the failures in his life to the abuse he says he suffered at school from a Jesuit master, the late Father Michael Spencer.
In the High Court the governors of the college, which closed in 1978, denied liability and said that, even if the abuse did occur, the case could not proceed as it was being brought years outside the legal time limit.
However, Mrs Justice Swift ruled that the case could go ahead to a full trial of the issues.
Mr Raggett said after the hearing: “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.”
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