Three women file civil lawsuits each seeking $3M in damages

CANADA
Chatham Daily News

A former Chatham priest and the Roman Catholic Diocese of London are being sued by three women who say they were sexually abused as teens.

The women are seeking $3 million in damages from former priest James Blonde and the diocese in separate lawsuits filed May 4 in London.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

When contacted by Postmedia News, the diocese said in a statement that it does not comment on lawsuits that have been filed.

The women, identified only by their initials in their statement of claims, said in their lawsuits that Blonde abused them in the early 1970s when he served at Blessed Sacrament parish in Chatham.

The women’s allegations have a similar pattern. In their claims, they said Blonde began hugging them when they were about 13 years old. Then he began to touch their body parts over their clothes, followed by more intimate touching and sexual activities, the statements say.

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