Ballarat bishop agrees to be sued for historic sex abuse claims in lieu of dead predecessor

By Charlotte King
ABC News
February 16, 2016

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-17/ballarat-bishop-agrees-to-be-sued/7175286

Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird has volunteered to put himself forward as a defendant.

A Catholic bishop in regional Victoria has agreed to be sued for sex abuse claims dating back to the 1960s, standing in the place of his long-dead predecessor.

His stance means victims can bring the Ballarat diocese to court over the actions of the previous bishop who is alleged to have presided over child sex abuse.

On January 1 a new set of guidelines came into effect, agreed to by the nation's 33 Catholic dioceses, and hundreds of religious orders.

They oblige all Church authorities to provide an entity for victims to sue, such as a trustee, even where the person responsible for overseeing the alleged abuse has since died.

In Ballarat, current bishop Paul Bird has volunteered to put himself forward as the defendant.

"In some way, the bishop carries the history of the community with them," Bishop Bird said.

"And so if the community, in a way, is going to address the history, they can do that in the most direct way, through the bishop at the time."

Bishop Bird's diocese has perhaps the worst record of clergy child abuse in the country, and the notorious paedophile priest Gerard Ridsdale is responsible for much of it.

Bishop Bird's stance means Ridsdale's early victims, abused when the former bishop James O'Collins was in charge up until 1971, can now sue the diocese.

"I've inherited the history of the community, for good and for ill, and therefore should be ready to address that history in so far as it needs to be addressed," Bishop Bird said.

"In some cases these may be covered by insurance, in other cases it would be the diocese itself that would have to meet any costs."

Dr Vivian Waller is representing victims who were abused during the reign of Bishop O'Collins, who died in 1983.

"It helps level up the playing field," she said.

"Traditionally, Catholic defendants engaged in out-of-court processes have always had the upper hand, because of the extreme difficulties faced by sexual abuse survivors in getting their matters to court.

"The consequence of Bishop Bird taking this position is that a number of people have been able to issue proceedings, and hopefully that means that the process will be a fairer one."

Previously victims were only able to sue a relevant bishop or religious leader if they were aware of the abuse and did nothing, but if the present day bishop or leader was not in charge at the time of the abuse, they cannot be held directly responsible.

When the former altar boy John Ellis brought the Archdiocese of Sydney to court for clergy abuse committed against him in the 1970s, he was hoping to pave the way for other victims to do the same.

Instead, he was knocked back on a preliminary point.

"It was obviously devastating at the time, being told that there was nobody who was going to respond to the things that had happened to me," Mr Ellis said.

"To have the courts decide that no, in fact you can't sue church entities, I felt that I'd done a great disservice to other survivors of abuse."

The Church cannot be sued as one entity because it is not incorporated.

But the royal commission condemned the archdiocese's handling of the Ellis case, and in 2014 the Church's Truth Justice and Healing Council put forward another approach.

"We made it clear to the church leadership that this issue had to be remedied, and that the policy needed to be focused more on the needs of the survivors," said Francis Sullivan, who heads up the council.

Mr Ellis said the Church's changed position goes some of the way to redressing the pain he endured from a court experience that, in his words, felt like being hung out to dry.

"The Catholic Church, and other churches, need to be in the same position as any other institution in society, that is that they're subject to the law of the land.

"To put themselves outside that system really sends the wrong message."