AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
March 11, 2018
By Finbar O’Mallon
The Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn has refused to throw his support behind legislation allowing child sex abuse victims to more easily sue the church.
Catholic archbishop Christopher Prowse said it was up to the ACT government to create loopholes in the ACT around the “Ellis defence” after they signalled last week it would be considered.
The Ellis defence is named after John Ellis, who was abused as an altar boy in the 1970s. Mr Ellis tried to sue the Catholic church in 2007, only for the church to argue it didn’t legally exist, so couldn’t be sued to compensate victims of child sex abuse by Catholic clergy.
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