UNITED KINGDOM
Caernafon-Denbigh Herald
Jul 12 2012
A ruling that the Catholic Church can be held liable for the wrongdoings of its priests has been upheld by the Court of Appeal.
The decision was announced in an action which has been described as raising “an issue of wide general importance in respect of claims against the Catholic Church”.
At the High Court in November Mr Justice MacDuff gave a decision in favour of a woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who claims she was sexually assaulted as a child by the late Father Wilfred Baldwin, a priest of the Portsmouth Diocese, at a children’s home in Hampshire run by an order of nuns.
Giving his decision on a preliminary issue in the damages action by the woman, who is now 48, the judge held that, in law, the Church “may be vicariously liable” for Father Baldwin’s alleged wrongdoings.
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