Man loses compensation case over East Yorkshire school abuse

BBC News
January 17, 2017

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-38650041

St William's Children's Home in Market Weighton closed in 1992

James Carragher, 75, and Anthony McCallen, 69, were convicted of a string of sexual offences in 2015

A man who claimed he was abused at an East Yorkshire Catholic school has lost a legal action for compensation.

He is one of 249 men suing the Catholic Church over alleged historical sexual abuse at St William's residential school in Market Weighton.

Only one man out of five initial cases heard at the High Court in Leeds has been awarded compensation.

In December, a judge ruled in favour of one claimant and ordered the church to pay £14,000 in damages.

At the same hearing, His Honour Judge Gosnell dismissed three other claims.

In January 2016 the former head of St William's James Carragher was jailed for the third time after he was found guilty of sexually abusing boys.

Carragher, 75, had already been sentenced to 21 years in prison for sexually abusing boys and was jailed for a further nine years in January.

He was jailed for seven years in 1993 and a further 14 years in 2004 for offences he committed at St William's, which closed in 1992.

Co-defendant Anthony McCallen, 69, a former chaplain at St William's, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a series of historical sex offences.

He was acquitted of eight other charges at the same trial.

The De La Salle Brothers, a Christian order of lay teachers, which ran the school has apologised "unreservedly" for the abuse.

Another set of compensation claims is expected to be heard in late 2017.