Sex abuse suit against Camden diocese settled

NEW JERSEY
Courier-Post

Jim Walsh, Cherry Hill 4:02 p.m. EDT June 27, 2014

A North Carolina woman has settled a lawsuit against the Diocese of Camden that alleged she was molested by a serial-offender priest in the 1980s.

In fighting the suit, the diocese contended Lisa Syvertson Shanahan waited too long to sue over alleged attacks during her childhood by Thomas Harkins, then a parish priest at St. Anthony of Padua in Hammonton.

The settlement came after a federal judge in March affirmed his ruling that Shanahan could pursue her suit under the state’s Child Sex Abuse Act, which can delay for decades the normal two-year statute of limitations.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

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