BishopAccountability.org
	A Package of News Briefs from the Caribbean Associated Press June 12, 2002 Trinidad: Three more accuse former monk of sexual abuse Port of Spain, Trinidad - Three more people have claimed they were sexually abused by a Trinidadian monk who worked as a teacher at an all-girls school in Connecticut, Trinidad's archbishop said Wednesday. The archdiocese received the complaints and forwarded them to the police, said the American-born Archbishop Edward Gilbert. Michael Benedict Taylor, 60, who was the principal of Trinidad's Catholic Boys Presentation College, was dismissed in 1997 after complaints of sexual abuse. He recently resigned from his position as a teacher at Connecticut's Lauralton Hall all-girls school. Taylor could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday. Gilbert said Wednesday the Catholic Church in Trinidad would not tolerate priests or laymen who abused minors and announced a detailed system for reporting allegations of sexual abuse. He said allegations would be heard by a review board and would then be investigated. Within 30 days a report would be made to the archbishop. In cases where there was "reasonable substance" to allegations, the archbishop would ask the cleric or lay person to resign, and if he refused, Gilbert said he would dismiss the priest and request that the priest was defrocked.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.