NEW YORK
Spectrum News
By Sarah Blazonis
Updated Wednesday, June 21, 2017
AMHERST, N.Y. — It can take decades for people who were sexually abused as children to reach a point where they’re ready to come forward and tell their story.
Thomas Travers says he was a boy when he tried to report what happened to him.
“I came forward when I was that age. I was told I was a liar. I was told that what happened to me did not happen, that a priest would never do that to a child,” said Travers.
He was 48 before he was ready to talk again — 25 years too late to take legal action. Right now, state law sets the statute of limitations on child sex abuse civil actions at the victim’s 23rd birthday.
“An age limit of 23 is both unrealistic and archaic. People who are abused as children, studies show more often than not, repress those memories, and they can resurface as late as someone’s 40s, 50s,” said attorney William Lorenz, Jr.
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