Catholic Church threatens to use Ellis defence

ABC - PM
July 1, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2014/s4036221.htm

MARK COLVIN: Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has come under fire for threatening to use the contentious Ellis defence. That defence says the church is not a legal entity which can be sued.

But in March, the former Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, told the Royal Commission into child abuse that victims should be able to sue the church.

Now, though, a New South Wales woman says the church still plans to use the legal precedent to fight her compensation claim.

Lorna Knowles compiled this report.

JENNIFER HERRICK: I was born with a congenital orthopaedic disability that caused me to walk with a highly abnormal gait, and I was really conscious of that. I would squirm inside myself at how I walked.

I didn't have any ability to feel comfortable with males at all because of how I walked. I was stared at for 30 years, where ever I walked, I was stared at.

LORNA KNOWLES: It was the late 1970s and Jennifer Herrick was a sheltered young woman just starting out as a teacher on the New South Wales north coast.

A family friend, nearly ten years her senior, came calling with a bottle of wine. Knowing he was short on money, she said he could use her spare room.

The next morning he appeared in her bedroom and forced himself on her.

The man was her local parish priest, Father Tom Knowles.

JENNIFER HERRICK: Extremely charismatic, very, very popular. He started coming to my family home.

My mother didn't have visitors, but Tom Knowles was allowed into the house. He came quite often.

LORNA KNOWLES: What followed was a 14 year secret sexual relationship, where Knowles would initiate painful and rushed encounters.

In 2011, Ms Herrick complained to the church, which apologised and paid her compensation.
But Ms Herrick now wants a full hearing of her claim for damages in the New South Wales Supreme Court.

The church's lawyers have told her they will rely on the Ellis defence, which arose from a court ruling in 2007, that said that the church is not a legal entity and cannot be sued.

JENNIFER HERRICK: It's contradictory to what came across in the royal commission as to what was going to happen.

I believe the public were given the understanding that the church had realised that they'd gone down an incorrect path there, and that this ought not continue.

However, in my case, it is still continuing.

LORNA KNOWLES: NSW Greens MP, David Shoebridge, has a bill before the NSW Parliament to overturn the Ellis defence.

DAVID SHOEBRIDGE: What we've got from Cardinal Pell was a series of statements that, if you took them at face value, would say the church should never again run the Ellis defence. And if you took them at face value, you'd see Cardinal Pell supporting statutory reform.
But of course, what Cardinal Pell says to the royal commission is very contrary to what he's done as a manager of church finances. He's used the offence - I'd say he's abused the offence - to avoid paying victims their due rights.

The fact is the law hasn't changed. These statements have been made, but all the power continues to reside with the church.

LORNA KNOWLES: Victims' group Broken Rites says Knowles' behaviour should be viewed in the same light as doctors who had sexual relationships with patients. Ms Herrick again.

JENNIFER HERRICK: If they all just did some research, and learned what power a spiritual power imbalance is, and what it causes, then they might have a different attitude.

LORNA KNOWLES: The Central Coast woman says she is not alone.

JENNIFER HERRICK: I believe this is the next thing that will face the church, that the church will have to come to grips with, is the women.

He took advantage of his role to approach and get to someone who he would never had normally been able to, had he not been a priest, and this clerical culture of entitlement, it has to stop.

MARK COLVIN: Jennifer Herrick, ending that report from Lorna Knowles.

In a statement issued late today, the Catholic Church said Ms Herrick's case was different to the Ellis case, one reason being that there were multiple parties named in the lawsuit. Graeme Duro, from the congregation of Blessed Sacrament, says the church has at all times sought to deal fairly and openly with Ms Herrick.