PENNSYLVANIA
Sys-Con
STATE COLLEGE, Pa., March 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — An attorney who represented many of the Penn State child sexual abuse victims says the new Pennsylvania grand jury report on widespread sexual abuse of children in the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic diocese reveals the all-too-common pattern of a powerful institution enabling and empowering child predators at the root of the Penn State-Sandusky and other sex abuse scandals.
Andrew Shubin, a State College child sexual abuse attorney who represented multiple Sandusky Penn State sexual abuse victims, and whose work was recently featured in Happy Valley, a documentary detailing the Penn State abuse scandal, announced that his firm is investigating sexual abuse allegations against priests in the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic diocese. Shubin said he will be working to ensure that predator priests and the indifferent church hierarchy that provided them with access to a stream of children, are held accountable in court for the catastrophic harm they inflicted.
“When the highest and most powerful officials in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese gave pedophile priests access to an unending stream of children, and the time, space and cover to groom and abuse them, they betrayed children, families and a community,” Shubin said. “We give schools, churches and coaches our children and trust and they give pedophiles the ammunition essential to abuse – indifference. How many children could have been saved had diocesan leaders cared more about kids than the church’s reputation?”
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.