Norwich Archdiocese to Pay $1.1m to Settle Priest Abuse Suit

Worcester Telegram & Gazette
March 23, 2015

http://www.telegram.com/article/20150323/NEWS/303239659/1116

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich has agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle a lawsuit alleging a woman was repeatedly molested by a now-deceased priest.

A trial had been scheduled to begin Tuesday in Hartford Superior Court in the case brought by the unidentified Massachusetts woman.

Attorneys for the plaintiff, the diocese and its insurer reached the settlement agreement following several days of mediation.

The woman alleged that the late Rev. Thomas Shea molested her dozens of times from when she was 3 years old into her teen years.

The lawsuit also named former Bishop Daniel Reilly, who was in charge of the Norwich Diocese during the time when Shea was moved from parish to parish as complaints mounted against him. Bishop Reilly was later bishop of the Worcester Catholic Diocese, from 1994 to 2004.

Shea was a parish priest in the diocese who was accused of molestation by more than a dozen girls from the 1960s to the 1980s. Shea died in 2006 at the age of 85.