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Lawyers acting for Church run up $1.5m bill ...
By Matthew Benns
LAWYERS representing Cardinal George Pell and the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney helped run up bills of $1.5 million against a victim of sexual abuse who had originally been happy to settle for just $100,000. The Royal Commission into child sex abuse heard how the lawyers — acting on the church’s instructions — “vigorously” fought John Ellis through the courts despite his second wife Nicola writing to the church to warn of his “fragile psychological state”. The NSW Court of Appeal ruling eventually gave the Catholic Church its notorious “Ellis Defence” — that it could not be sued as a legal entity and could not be held liable for abuse committed by a priest. Cardinal Pell gave the legal action the green light at the time. But in a part of his statement read today he back flipped and said: “My own view is that the Church in Australia should be able to be sued in cases of this kind.” Mr Ellis was sexually abused by Father Aidan Duggan while he was an altar boy from the age of 13 to 17 years old at Christ the King Catholic Church at Bass Hill between 1974 and 1979. As an altar boy he was invited back to have dinner with Father Duggan and the relationship developed from Iced Vovos and chats to Grants Scotch whiskey and frequent sexual encounters. Mr Ellis said he had “very clear distressing physical memories of his kissing me. I remember feeling sore afterwards from his beard stubble.” He also stayed with Father Duggan at two holiday homes, one in Umina on the Central Coast. “When I was staying at the house I slept in the same bed as Father Duggan and Father Duggan had sexual intercourse with me. “I was ashamed of what was happening and I knew that it was meant to be secret,” he said. The abuse left him feeling ashamed and sick. It affected his relationships and cost him his job as a salaried partner at a senior law firm. Eventually he made a complaint through the church’s Towards Healing program. When his repeated attempts at mediation failed, Mr Ellis sued the Archdiocese in 2004. Shortly afterwards Father Duggan died. Senior Counsel assisting the Royal Commission, Gail Furness, said: “Despite being aware of the assessment made during Towards Healing that on balance of probabilities Mr Ellis had been abused by Father Duggan ... for the purposes of the litigation the Archdiocese disputed that the abuse had occurred.” The church lawyers refused any form of apology and instead subpoenaed his former employer and approached his former colleagues and ex-wife for statements. Cardinal Pell, according to his statement, is “now troubled by that approach”. When Mr Ellis lost on appeal, the church lawyers pursued him to cover its costs. “It continued to adopt this strategy even after being advised by Mr Ellis’ solicitor that his health had deteriorated and that there were prospects of self harm if the costs award was pursued,” said Ms Furness. Eventually Mr Ellis received $568,000 from the Catholic Church. The Church insurers paid just under half of the $1.5 million eventual cost of the case. Since Cardinal Pell was appointed Archbishop in 2001, there have been 204 claims relating to child sexual abuse by 55 ordained priests in the Sydney Archdiocese. Almost all relate to incidents that occurred before Cardinal Pell’s appointment and have resulted in just under $8 million paid in reparations. Cardinal Pell, who is due to move to Rome to work on the Vatican’s finances, is expected to appear before the Commission on Thursday.
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