Man Fails in Bid to Sue Disgraced Cardinal

The Evening Times
December 4, 2013

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/man-fails-in-bid-to-sue-disgraced-cardinal-144400n.22863008

A MAN has failed in an attempt to sue disgraced Cardinal Keith O'Brien over alleged sex abuse by a parish priest.

The 33-year-old from Bathgate, West Lothian, claims he was given cash and rosary beads to buy his silence.

The priest he blames for molesting him between 1989 and 1992 has since died.

The man went to the Court of Session in Edinburgh seeking £100,000 damages, and in papers submitted to the court his lawyers tried to argue that Cardinal O'Brien and other senior figures in the Catholic Church's hierarchy in Scotland should legally carry the blame - in the same way that an employer can be sued over an employee's wrongdoing.

The churchmen named in the action are the trustees of the Archdiosese of St Andews and Edinburgh.

The man claimed they were responsible for the work of his former parish priest, who was also linked to the primary school and secondary school he attended.

But judge Paul Arthurson QC was told that the man had left it too late before raising his court action.

In normal circumstances there is a three year deadline and the clock starts running either at the time of the incident or when the person trying to sue reaches the age of 16.