Catholic Church threatens to use Ellis defence

AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

MARK COLVIN: Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has come under fire for threatening to use the contentious Ellis defence. That defence says the church is not a legal entity which can be sued.

But in March, the former Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, told the Royal Commission into child abuse that victims should be able to sue the church.

Now, though, a New South Wales woman says the church still plans to use the legal precedent to fight her compensation claim.

Lorna Knowles compiled this report.

JENNIFER HERRICK: I was born with a congenital orthopaedic disability that caused me to walk with a highly abnormal gait, and I was really conscious of that. I would squirm inside myself at how I walked.

I didn’t have any ability to feel comfortable with males at all because of how I walked. I was stared at for 30 years, where ever I walked, I was stared at.

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