UNITED STATES
The Guardian (UK)
Amanda Holpuch in New York
@holpuch
Wednesday 13 April 2016
The courthouse doors will soon close on victims of clergy sex abuse in Minnesota and Hawaii when a brief window to bring charges against the Catholic church expires.
Statute of limitations laws have made it nearly impossible for adults who were abused as children to put their claims before a court, even after revelations in 2002 about decades of widespread child sex abuse by Catholic priests.
But in May 2013, Minnesota created a three-year window for past victims of abuse to file child sex abuse lawsuits against the church and other institutions, even after the statute of limitations has closed. This was a life-changing opportunity for people like James Hlavka, who told the Guardian he has “lived hell on earth” since being abused by a priest from age 10 to 15 in the 1960s.
Hlavka, who lives in one of four states that have created such windows, said a chance to appear in court gave him the courage to speak about the five years of abuse that sent him spiralling into a lifestyle of binge eating, starvation, promiscuity, drug abuse and alcohol addiction. This interview was the first time Hlavka spoke publicly about the abuse he suffered, having initially filed his case against the church as “John Doe 117”.
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