AUSTRALIA
Bendigo Advertiser
By Barney Zwartz July 3, 2013
The Catholic Church has apologised for “legally abusing” a sexual abuse victim who lost a landmark compensation case after the church argued it could not be sued.
Asked for $750,000 in compensation for the abuse of John Ellis, the church instead spent almost exactly that sum “vigorously defending” the case, and later pursued him for those costs. Instead of giving him $750,000, it sought $755,000 from him.
Mr Ellis reveals correspondence between him and the church in a submission to the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled sexual abuse. His evidence, posted on the parliamentary inquiry’s website on Wednesday, is a reply to Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell’s evidence last month.
Mr Ellis says the cardinal provided “false and misleading” testimony to the inquiry about his case.
In the Ellis case, the NSW Court of Appeal found in 2007 that neither the Sydney archdiocese trustees nor archbishop were liable for child sexual abuse by a priest. Asked to identify who should answer his claim, the archdiocese refused to do so, saying the person liable was the priest who abused him.
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