| Perth Sex Abuse Inquiry Told of Legal Action "Tsunami"
By Aleisha Orr
Sydney Morning Herald
May 2, 2014
http://www.smh.com.au/wa-news/perth-sex-abuse-inquiry-told-of-legal-action-tsunami-20140502-zr31q.html
|
Lawyer Hayden Stephens.
|
A lawyer who defended the Christian Brothers against a class action over child sexual abuse has described the legal action as a "tsunami" that needed to be "managed".
Carrolll & O'Dea partner Howard Harrison gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Thursday and is expected to be questioned further on Friday.
Public hearings are being held in Perth in relation to sexual abuse at Christian Brothers run institutions in WA between the 1940s and 1960s.
Mr Harrison said when pressed that "some" members of the Order must have been aware of the abuse at the time of legal proceedings in the 1990s.
The class action representing about 200 men began in 1993 and a settlement was not reached until three years later.
When asked about why mediation was not done in the earlier stages of the process to try to avoid a lengthy court battle, Mr Harrison said mediation was an option but because the law firm had a lack of detail about the case, it did not go ahead.
"An early kind of rollover without proper particulars and validation and some level of crosschecking could prejudice the capacity of the order to continue to undertake its ministry," he said.
The chair of the commission questioned whether a Brother who had written a report into the history of child sexual abuse within the order in previous years was engaged by the defense as a "tactic" to ensure the Brother would be "unavailable" to provide further background to the report to the plaintiff.
Mr Harrison said this was not the law firm's aim but agreed that it was the outcome.
Mr Harrison will be the first witness on Friday morning.
WA Department of Local Government and Communities director Narrell Lethorn is also expected to front the hearing.
She is expected to give evidence about the establishment, operation and effectiveness of the Redress WA scheme.
The hearing also heard from Slater & Gordon lawyer Hayden Stephens, who told the hearing victims were “dragged through” three years of litigation for a payout that did not reflect the impact on the victims.
“To be blunt, the trustees of the Christian Brothers had their knee on our clients’ throat and there was little opportunity for our clients to flex their negotiation muscle or us on behalf of them,” he said.
|