Klauwen en poten

‘As children, we weren't given an innocent, carefree and safe environment. We weren't given a peaceful structure in which to grow and develop normally. Instead we lived in the hands of evil, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. They left us in a permanent black abyss, filled with indelible, haunting nightmares. ‘By some miracle, some of us are still here to voice the words of so many who can't. Only a small number of victims ever come forward. We go through life, troubled and with our spirits broken. The full potential of who we could have been as adults has been stolen.’

"Anne"


The High Court in London has ruled that the Catholic church is responsible for child abuse committed by its clergy.

The judgment comes in a civil action brought by Miss JGE (name withheld), who claims to have been sexually abused by a Catholic priest whilst resident in a children’s home run by the church.

The church had claimed that, on a technicality of employment law, it could not be held vicariously responsible because there is no formal employment relationship with their priests.

But Mr Justice Macduff decided that the professional relationship between a priest and his bishop is sufficiently close so as to impose responsibility.

The case involves the late Father Baldwin, a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth. At the time of the alleged abuse he was ‘vocations director’ of the Roman Catholic diocese of Portsmouth and regularly visited The Firs children’s home, in Waterlooville. JGE was admitted to the home in May 1970, aged seven.

The home was run by an order of nuns, the English Province of Our Lady of Charity. Father Baldwin was encouraged to have contact with the children and was granted generous and unsupervised access to them.

JGE alleges that during these visits Father Baldwin sexually abused her both within the home, in a private sitting room set aside for visitors, and in the vestry of the adjoining church of St Michael and All Angels.

JGE’s allegations arose in May 2006 after police came ‘cold calling’ on her and others who they suspected may have been abused, whilst investigating Father Baldwin’s activities after receiving complaints.

Father Baldwin died in 2006. The hearing to determine the church’s responsibility took place over two days during July, but judgment was withheld.

A trial had been scheduled for December, but given the delay it will now be rescheduled for some time next year.

Emott Snell & Co




























Bron

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14
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25,1 , Short v JW Henderson (1946) 62 TLR 427 ontbreekt
25,2 Stevenson Jordan and Harrison Ltd v Macdonald [1952] 1 TLR 101 ontbreekt
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Danneels 1998

René Stockman 2011