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  Priest Jailed for Child Molestation Faces Lawsuits

By Chantaie Allick
Toronto Star
December 9, 2011

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1099390

Two men have launched lawsuits against Rev. William Hodgson Marshall, a Catholic priest jailed in June for molesting children over a period of four decades.

Marshall, 90, is serving a two-year term after pleading guilty to 17 counts of indecent assault which included repeated molestation of the victims.

Patrick David Lawrence McMahon is suing Marshall, the Basilian Fathers of Toronto and Bishop Ronald Peter Fabbro for about $3 million in damages.

Jerome Edward Boyle, a former student of Marshall’s, is suing Marshall, the Basilians, Fabbro, the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board and the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of the Diocese of London for the same amount.

“The lawsuit’s really aimed at the institutional players,” said their lawyer, Robert Talach, noting the groups have had a “historical, ongoing difficulty in dealing with these issues.”

Marshall was McMahon’s family priest and his father’s close, lifelong friend.

The abuse began around 1981 when McMahon was 14 and continued over a four-year period, he says in his claim.

Boyle, who is 28 years older than McMahon, claims he was abused by Marshall beginning in 1954 when he, too, was 14. The abuse continued over a two-year period, according to Boyle’s statement of claim.

“I have been haunted for more than half a century by memories of the terror I experienced,” Boyle said in a media statement.

The men’s claims have yet to be proven in court.

The claimants say they want justice and for the institutions they say protected Marshall to be held accountable.

“These actions are dreadful and they never should have happened,” said Rev. Timothy Scott, spokesman for the Basilian Fathers. “Whatever we can do to support (the victims), we’re absolutely prepared to do so.”

 
 

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