WALLSEND (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation - ABC [Sydney, Australia]
February 10, 2026
By Elizabeth Byrne
In short:
A man who sued the Catholic Church for liability over sexual abuse he suffered as a boy has had his ruling upheld by the High Court.
The man alleged the priest abused him in the presbytery at St Patrick’s Catholic Church at Wallsend when he was 13 years old.
What’s next?
The case comes as the states and territories contemplate imposing vicarious liability on bodies such as churches and other groups, including Scouts, for the actions of paedophiles.
The High Court has found the Catholic Church liable for the harm caused to a 13-year-old boy who suffered abuse at the hands of a paedophile priest in the late 1960s.
Warning: This story contains details that may be distressing to readers.
The case has broken new ground in the fight for compensation by victims, relying on an argument about non-delegable duties.
The man at the centre of the case maintained that Father Ronald Pickin had committed the abuse in the presbytery of St Patrick’s Catholic Church at Wallsend, in the diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.
He said Father Pickin would give him and his friend cigarettes and alcohol on Friday nights.
He said the abuse happened when he was “paralytic drunk” and after Father Pickin would send his friend away to buy cigarettes.
The friend agreed they were given alcohol and cigarettes but said others were present and he was never sent away.
Father Pickin knew the boys because he had taught religious education at Wallsend High School.
First ruling overturned on appeal
The man won his first case when a judge found the church was vicariously liable for the damage done to him.
The court awarded him $636,840.
The judge accepted the assaults had happened, despite the inconsistencies with the evidence.
But the finding was undermined by a High Court ruling that the church was not vicariously liable for the actions of priests, because they were not strictly employees.
The body representing the church, the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, overturned the ruling on appeal.
In the High Court the man’s lawyers argued the church did have what is called a non-delegable duty to the children abused by clergy, even in circumstances when they were not aware there was a danger to children.
A non-delegable duty is used to justify the imposition of liability on one person for the negligence of another who is entrusted with a task.
The High Court agreed with the case.
“The duty of the Diocese owed to [the man] in 1969 was a duty to a child to ensure that while the child was under the care, supervision or control of a priest of the Diocese … purportedly performing a function of a priest of the Diocese, reasonable care was taken to prevent reasonably foreseeable personal injury to the child,” the majority of the High Court found.
The court also said the Diocese knew that by virtue of their immaturity, children were vulnerable to harm, and it alone had the practical capacity to supervise and control Father Pickin’s performance.
The court said that included intentional criminal acts including sexual abuse.
Father Pickin died in 2015, before the first hearing in the case.
The High Court awarded costs against the church, but also halved the man’s payout to $335, 920.
Vicarious liability
The case comes as the states and territories contemplate imposing vicarious liability on bodies like the churches and other groups, including Scouts, for the actions of paedophiles.
The ACT was the first to introduce a law making it possible for victims to sue on that basis.
The moves were prompted by a High Court ruling against a man claiming vicarious liability for his abuse by a paedophile priest.
The court said for the church to be vicariously liable the priest would have had to be a formal employee, but that the clergy had a different relationship to the church, which was only akin to employment.
The new laws will target not just clergy, but volunteers and sporting coaches who are also in positions akin to employment.