MINNESOTA
New York Daily News
BY
MICHAEL O’KEEFFE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
A sexual abuse survivor has scored an unprecedented victory against the Catholic Church, with an Indian diocese removing a predator priest who’d been shockingly reinstated after assaulting the woman when she was a teen in the U.S.
Officials in the Diocese of Ootacamund are removing Rev. Joseph Jeyapaul from the ministry and barring him from working with children. In a legal settlement, the diocese also agreed to provide sex abuse survivor Megan Peterson, formerly of Queens, with annual updates on the whereabouts and activities of Jeyapaul, the priest she says assaulted her when she was a teenager. She’d sued the diocese in federal court upon learning of Jeyapaul’s reinstatement.
The settlement marks the first time a foreign diocese has agreed to take responsibility for a predator priest after he left the U.S., said sex-abuse attorney Jeff Anderson.
“This is such a step forward for the survivors movement as a whole,” Peterson said following a press conference in St. Paul announcing the settlement Monday.
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