CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant
October 6, 2019
By Daniela Altimari
Advocates for clergy sex abuse victims say they will ask lawmakers to consider extending the civil statute of limitations, providing those victims with more time to file lawsuits.
Mark Fuller of New Canaan says it took him 25 years to seek help for the lingering trauma of clergy sex abuse.
He is still waiting for a legal reckoning.
“I should be able to sue for the usual things, like any other citizen who has been wronged: pain and suffering. Lost wages. Medical expenses. Reimbursement for counseling services,” Fuller told members of the Connecticut legislature earlier this year. “But the statutes prevent justice in this area.”
Connecticut law currently allows child victims to file suit but they must do so before their 51st birthday. Experts say some victims don’t come to terms with the anguish of sexual abuse until later in life, sometimes until after the deadline for legal claims has passed.
Lawmakers had considered opening a legal window to enable Fuller and others who were sexually abused as children to file lawsuits against predators and the institutions that hid the abuse. But in recent years, such efforts have fallen short in Connecticut.
Victims and their advocates aren’t giving up and they hope a scathing report released Tuesday by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport on the alleged sexual abuse of hundreds of victims by clergy since the early 1950s will provide their drive with fresh momentum.
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