In Australia, Christian Brothers sex abuse settlement a first after lawsuit limits end

Perth, Australia, Aug 18, 2018 / 15:09 pm

The Christian Brothers have reached a settlement with a dying 74-year-old Australian man for physical and sexual abuse he suffered in their orphanages as a child in the 1950s and 1960s.

The man, Paul Bradshaw, is the first victim to receive compensation under a new Western Australia law that removes the time limit on bringing abuse cases.

Bradshaw will receive AUD 1 million (nearly $732,000).

Before the settlement was reached, Bradshaw was preparing to testify in Western Australia state District Court about how he suffered abuse at Castledare Junior Orphanage and Clontarf Orphanage.

Bradshaw is suffering terminal cancer and doctors have given him six months to live.

The Trustees of the Christian Brothers made the settlement for abuse committed by the deceased Brothers Lawrence Murphy, Bruno Doyle, and Christopher Angus.

Bradshaw said he aimed to use the funds to support his relatives.

"I will die happy now knowing that I can care for my family," he said.

"I lived on the street most of my life and I don't want them to go through the same thing I went through," he told reporters, according to the Associated Press. "I'm just hoping now that this has been settled and I can get on with my last six months in peace."

Bradshaw's lawyer, Michael Magazanik, said the orphanages housed the most vulnerable children who had no families or outsiders who could protect them.

"They were utterly vulnerable and the orphanages were a magnet for the very worst of the brothers, the violent pedophiles," he said.

The lawyer said that Brother Murphy was reported for child sex abuse 10 years before he first abused Bradshaw but nothing was done.

Bradshaw reported his abuse twice as a child but his claims were dismissed. After he left the Clontarf orphanage, he told a judge about his allegations but he was accused of lying and admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

Bradshaw did aid in the criminal prosecution of Murphy in the 1990s but prosecutors dropped the case.

The Catholic Church in Australia in May committed to an AUD 3.8 billion ($2.8 billion) national redress plan for victims of child sex abuse in Australian institutions. The Church is the first non-government institution to commit to the fund. It will be liable for an estimated AUD 1 billion ($732 million).

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse since 2012 has investigated the institutional response to sex abuse as far back as 90 years. More than 8,000 survivors of child sex abuse testified. Catholics made up about 62 percent of those abused in religious institutions.

The commission issued its final report in December.

Multiple bishops have faced trial over sex abuse allegations.

In July Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide. In May the archbishop was convicted of failing to report alleged sex abuse disclosed to him in the 1970s, when he had been a priest for only a year.

Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, faces trial for allegations of abuse.