BELFAST (NORTHERN IRELAND)
Irish News
February 13, 2021
A man subjected to “unfathomably cruel” sexual abuse by a priest hearing his childhood confessions is to be awarded £170,000 in damages, a High Court judge has ruled.
Mr Justice McAlinden held that the victim was preyed on by the late Fr Seamus Reid at a Co Down school in the mid 1970s.
The total payout also covers separate claims that Hugh McNamara, a former principal of St Mark’s High School in Warrenpoint, caned the victim so hard that he wet himself, and then made him clean up the pool of blood and urine.
The Diocese of Dromore was held liable for the alleged episodes of sexual and physical abuse which resulted in the victim developing post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I find it difficult to imagine a more horrific perversion of the true purpose and meaning of a Christian sacrament by an ordained member of the clergy of a Christian church,” the judge said.
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