NEW JERSEY
NJ.com
February 28, 2020
By Anthony G. Attrino
A New Jersey woman has filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Camden accusing a priest of sexually abused her decades ago when she was a child while church officials allowed it to happen.
Patricia Cahill, 67, of Bergen County, claims the Rev. Daniel Francis Marks Millard, sexually abused her from 1957 to 1965, according to the suit, filed Feb. 4 in Camden County Superior Court.
While NJ Advance Media does not typically name victims of sexual abuse, Cahill been speaking publicly about the alleged abuse for years. The lawsuit is another in the flood of litigation against churches and other groups since a two-year window opened on Dec. 1 under a new law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy that expanded the amount of time that victims of sexual assault may bring a lawsuit.
The abuse began when Cahill was age 5 and ended when she was age 13, the suit alleges.
Cahill, who was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in Ridgewood, participated in youth activities and “developed great admiration, trust, reverence, and respect” for the church and Millard, the suit states.
The diocese placed Millard “in positions where (he) had access to and worked with children as an integral part of his work,” the lawsuit states.
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