FLORIDA
Fox 13
[with video]
By: Evan Lamber, FOX 13 News
TAMPA (FOX 13) – For 40 years, a man named in a new lawsuit as John Doe has been hiding allegations that he was sexually abused as a child at Tampa Catholic school Mary Help of Christians.
The school is now defunct, but the religious order that ran it, the Salesians of Don Bosco, does operate a church on the school’s old property in East Tampa.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Hillsborough County names Brother John Casula as the abuser.
Casula was an auto shop teacher and religious leader at the school. He died in 1994.
Casula’s accuser says the abuse began in 1976 when he was 12 and continued for two years. During that time, the accuser says Casula touched and fondled him on nearly 20 separate occasions in a secluded auto shop at the school. The lawsuit alleges the school knew about other abuse allegations against Casula and other brothers or priests, but did not report the abuse and protected the abusers.
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