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	Deceased Cambridge Minister Named in Sex Abuse Suit By Frances Barrick The Record December 3, 2010 http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/824807 A deceased Cambridge minister is at the centre of a $2.1-million sexual abuse lawsuit against the United Church of Canada. Rev. Robert Duthie, a minister at Lincoln Avenue United Church in Cambridge in the 1980s, died in May in Cambridge. He was 71 and had retired in 2003. In 2008, a judge in Chatham found Duthie not guilty of sex charges dating back to the 1970s in Chatham. The alleged victim in that case, a 48-year-old Chatham-Kent area man, is now suing the United Church, claiming it didn’t protect him from an alleged sexual predator. “He can’t get justice through the criminal system and he hopes to get some vindication through the civil system,” said Rob Talach, a London, Ont. lawyer who is representing the man who is suing the church. A court order prohibits the publication of his name. Alan Hall, of the United Church of Canada, said the church is in the process of reviewing the lawsuit and transcripts from the criminal trial. “At this point we don’t have a position on the allegations that have been made. We have to review the facts first,” Hall said Friday. He said the United Church has a zero-tolerance policy on sexual abuse. Talach said his client was 11 years old in 1973 when he and his family started attending Victoria Avenue United Church in Chatham. Duthie was the minister. In a statement of claim filed with the Superior Court of Justice, the plaintiff alleges that Duthie repeatedly sexually assaulted him over eight years, starting in 1973. The allegations in the statement of claim have not been proven or tested in court. “The relationships that Duthie developed with the plaintiff, under the guise of a minister-parishioner relationship, allowed Duthie an opportunity to be alone with the plaintiff, exert influence and control over him, prey upon him, and sexually abuse him,” the statement claims. The alleged offences occurred at the church and at the manse, the court document says. The United Church of Canada failed to protect the plaintiff from Duthie and failed to screen and or monitor the character, sexual orientation and sexual activity of Duthie, the claim says. Talach said Duthie lived a double life: that of a pastor and family man, and an alleged sexual predator. The lawyer believes there are more victims and he hopes media coverage of the case will give people the courage to come forward. “Sexual abuse of a young child is not like golf. You don’t just try it once. It is a sickness. It is an addiction,” Talach said. Contact: fbarrick@therecord.com
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