Catholic Church loses child sex abuse liability appeal

A ruling that the Catholic Church can be held liable for the wrongdoings of its priests has been upheld.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-18278529

Last year Mr Justice MacDuff decided in favour of a woman, now 47 and known as JGE who reports that  as a child she was beaten by a nun at a care home in Hampshire and later raped and sexually assaulted by a priest of the Portsmouth Diocese, Fr Wilfred Baldwin, who has since died.
The Court of Appeal has upheld this decision, which raises "an issue of wide general importance in respect of claims against the Catholic Church".

Lawyers for the claimant said of the ruling in November 2011 that it was the first time a court had been asked to rule on whether the "relationship between a Catholic priest and his bishop is akin to an employment relationship".
After the latest hearing, the claimant's lawyer Tracey Emmott said: 'It is hoped that this ruling will now be accepted, and that victims of abuse by Catholic priests can be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve."
The Court of Appeal judgement said the diocese could not appeal against the decision until a similar case at the Supreme Court on 23 July had been concluded.
Speaking after the original ruling last year, the alleged victim said: "I relive it in my nightmares. It doesn't go just because I'm not in a court room - because I know that when I go to sleep it will be there.

Meanwhile, it is interesting to note that according to The Catholic Herald (http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2012/07/11/on-archbishop-menninis-advice-bishop-mark-daviess-right-hand-man-has-been-appointed-bishop-of-portsmouth-this-is-the-dawning-of-a-new-era/)  “Bishop Mark Davies’s right-hand man has been appointed as Bishop of Portsmouth”

This, of course is the same Mark Davies, Bishop of Shrewsbury, who was previously the vicar general in the Diocese of Salford where Father Thomas Doherty was never laicised, despite being convicted in 1998 for five offences of indecency against a child and being sentenced to six years imprisonment (Doherty went to his grave in 2010 retaining his canonical status as a priest) and where many are waiting to see what the impact of today’s ruling will be in the cases of survivors of abuse by deceased Salford diocesan priests (see http://caads.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/bishop-of-salford-forced-to-apologise.html ).