PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive
By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com
The laws that govern how long victims of child sex abuse have to bring their predators to justice came one step closer to being reformed on Monday.
A bill that would reform the statute of limitations cleared a hurdle in the House as lawmakers approved two amendments to House Bill 1947, which would eliminate civil and criminal statutes of limitations to most sex crimes, especially child sex abuse cases – all going forward.
The House agreed to attach an amendment introduced by Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks) that would retroactively raise the age limit for civil lawsuits in sex abuse cases from 30 to 50.
Speaking before a House session that was notably boisterous with chatter all day, Rozzi brought the chamber to a hushed silence as he spoke about friends and victims who had either committed suicide or suffered decades of anguish after being sexually abused by priests.
Rozzi’s amendment would raise the age limit for victims to seek charges – retroactively — from 30 to 50.
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.