CANADA
The Telegram
Barb Sweet/The Telegram
The last days of the Mount Cashel civil trial weren’t the only ones when the sordid details of abuse were rehashed and the effects on lives debated, but they have been powerful torment for the one John Doe who has most frequently attended court.
“I thought a couple times of leaving the courtroom. I was getting aggravated,” Doe said Friday outside court of the previous day’s developments — the beginning of the church’s closing arguments on why it should not be held liable.
The case involves four test case John Does who say the Roman Catholic Church should be held liable for abuse the boys suffered at the hands of certain Irish Christian Brothers at the orphanage from the late 1940s to the early 1960s.
The church’s arguments ended Friday, with Doe sitting forward on a wooden bench and listening to what he remarked later were “half-truths.”
None of the four test case John Does in the trial can be named, but this Doe, a retired teacher, has also had to wear the fact people who know him have seen him coming and going from the courthouse.
“It will be good to not be stuck out in public. I find that hard to take, too. There’s a shame comes with this you can’t shake,” he said, acknowledging he is looking forward to the end of the court proceedings for him and his family.
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