Brotherhood faces sex abuse action

UNITED KINGDOM
Belfast Telegraph

A Catholic brotherhood which supplied teachers to a residential school can be held legally responsible for sexual abuse of boys, leading judges have ruled.

Around 170 men are seeking damages after alleging they were abused as children at St William’s in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, and a former head was convicted numerous serious sexual offences, the Supreme Court was told.

A panel of five Supreme Court justices concluded that legal responsibility should be shared between a welfare society which managed the school and a brotherhood which provided teachers.

St William’s was founded in 1865 by Catholic benefactors and run locally as a “reformatory school” for boys, Supreme Court justices had been told at a hearing in London.

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.