Perth Royal Commission sex abuse witnesses slam Slater & Gordon

AUSTRALIA
WA Today

April 30, 2014

Aleisha Orr
Reporter, WA Today

Victims of sexual abuse at Christian Brothers run institutions have slammed the law firm which represented them in a class action, alleging they were “forced” to sign a settlement they did not understand.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard from the final two of 11 victims at Wednesday morning, the third day of Perth’s public hearing.

Gordon Grant and Edward Delaney spoke of sexual abuse at Bindoon Farm School.

Mr Delaney, who was taken as a child to Australia from the United Kingdom without the consent of his mother, described the class action put forward by Slater & Gordon in the 1990s as “a joke”.

He said he was told the church had made an offer and, “if I did not take the offer, I would get nothing.”

“If I did take the offer, that was the end of it. It was only around $3000. For what we went though, I felt this was an insult”.

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.