UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 May 2012
Sympathy with victims of sexual abuse should not be grounds for courts to extend the law on compensation “infinitely” and impose extra liabilities on employers, the court of appeal has been told.
In a test case that could alter relationships between many organisations and their staff, the trustees of a Catholic diocese are denying responsibility for crimes allegedly committed by a priest in a children’s home.
The claim has been brought by a 47-year-old woman – known to the court as JGE – who says she was sexually and physically assaulted at the Firs children’s home in Waterlooville, Hampshire, in the early 1970s.
The claimant maintains that the nun in charge of the home assaulted her and that Father William Baldwin, the local parish priest, who has since died, sexually abused and raped her.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.