Appellate Court Absolves Diocese, Sw Church of Liability for Sex Abuse

By Alex Wood
Journal Inquirer
June 28, 2013

http://www.journalinquirer.com/crime_and_courts/appellate-court-absolves-diocese-sw-church-of-liability-for-sex/article_e224de16-e008-11e2-a3ce-001a4bcf887a.html

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in South Windsor and the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut aren’t liable to a man who says the priest at St. Peter’s sexually molested him in 1977 when he was in sixth grade and serving as an acolyte, the state Appellate Court ruled this week.

The court concluded that the harm inflicted by the former priest, Bruce Jacques, on the plaintiff in the case, Robert Gough, “was not foreseeable.”

That conclusion was based largely on numerous affidavits by church members who knew Jacques and saw him interact with others over a long stretch of his life. All said they had no reason to believe that Jacques would abuse anyone.