AUSTRALIA
WA Today
May 1, 2014
Aleisha Orr
Reporter, WA Today
Details of legal proceedings undertaken in the 1990s in regard to child sex abuse at institutions run by Christian Brothers in Western Australia were revealed as part of a royal commission.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse in Perth was told that approximately the same amount of money was spent on legal costs as the total amount awarded to a group of about 200 men in the case.
The commission is hearing accounts of sexual abuse against children at the institutions in WA between the 1940s and ‘60s.
Slater & Gordon lawyer Hayden Stephens, involved in the class action against the Christian Brothers, told the hearing that men were “dragged through” three years of litigation for a payout that did not reflect the impact on the victims.
“We had battled for three years… and although that this amount of money does not reflect the suffering that these men had suffered and experienced at these institutions, it was the best that we could achieve through these negotiations.
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