BishopAccountability.org
	Diocese in £8m Abuse Claim Pocklington Post July 19, 2010 http://www.pocklingtonpost.co.uk/news/Diocese-in-8m-ABUSE-CLAIM.6427173.jp A CATHOLIC diocese has launched an appeal against a court ruling that it was liable for running a former children's home in Market Weighton where 150 former residents are suing for sexual and physical abuse. The Middlesbrough Diocese, which is facing an £8m compensation claim from former pupils, says the De La Salle Brotherhood should take some or all responsibility for the alleged abuse at St William's reform school for boys. The brotherhood had provided teachers for the school which had taken in youngsters with behavioural problems. Last year, a judge had ruled the brotherhood had no legal responsibility for the alleged abuse by staff at the school, which closed in 1992. It has since been demolished and Linden House mental hospital now stands on the site. Jeremy Stuart-Smith QC, representing the diocese, told three judges at the Court of Appeal in London on Monday that many or most of the alleged acts of abuse were said to have been committed by members of the brotherhood working at the school, and it was the organisation which appointed the teachers. But although the De La Salle Brothers were in senior positions, Judge Hawkesworth found they were not employed by the lay order; it was the diocese that had the power to appoint staff. The case centres on the alleged systematic abuse of boys aged between 10 and 16 from 1960 to 1992. The home had taken in boys referred from local authorities, mainly from Yorkshire and the North East. The compensation case was launched six years ago, when the home's former headmaster, Brother James Carragher, was sentenced to 14 years in prison after being convicted of abusing boys at the home between 1968 and 1992. He had already been given a sevenyear term in 1993 for other offences of serious sexual abuse at the home. The legal action includes abuse claims involving Carragher, but also many claims against other staff. About 2,000 children and 500 staff were at St William's over the 30-year period. Carragher and many other St William's staff were members of the brotherhood. Lawyers representing the alleged victims also say the institute should, at the very least, be held liable for abuse perpetrated prior to 1973 when St William's ceased being an "approved school", instead becoming an "assisted community home". Mr Stuart-Smith QC, said the De La Salle Brotherhood first became involved in the school in 1912 and, until it withdrew from St William's in 1990, it appeared to pupils that the brotherhoodwas in control. The headmaster of St William's was always a member of the brotherhood and its senior management was exclusively picked from the brotherhood until 1976, he added. Although St William's was owned through a series of trusts, Mr Stuart-Smith said it was clear that the school functioned "under the authority" of De La Salle, which exercised a "remarkable degree of power" over its management and highly-disciplined ethos. However Edward Faulks, QC, for De La Salle, described as "unassailable" Judge Hawkesworth's conclusion that the brotherhood was not legally responsible for the school's operations or management, either before or after 1973. The hearing before Lord Justice Pill, Lord Justice Hughes and Lord Justice Tomlinson continues and is expected to last until today. The judges are expected to reserve their judgement to a later date.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.