MALTA
Reuters via Times of Malta
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
The Polish court of appeal upheld on Tuesday a landmark ruling granting a million zloty (€230,000) in compensation to a victim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, accepting that the Church in Poland was responsible for its priest’s crimes.
The Catholic Church worldwide is reeling from crises involving sexual abuse of minors, deeply damaging confidence in the Church in Chile, the United States, Australia and Ireland among other countries.
In January, a court ordered the Catholic Church to pay compensation to a woman who had been sexually abused by a priest as a child.
“The verdict of the Court of Appeal legally decides to award one million zloty compensation … and an annuity of 800 zloty (€187) a month,” the court statement said.
State news agency PAP reported last year that a priest had abused a 13-year-old girl during his tenure in northwestern Poland.
The man, who imprisoned and raped the girl for more than 10 months, was arrested in 2008 and sentenced in 2010 to four years in prison, Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported.
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