AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM
CHRIS ULHMANN: It’s been labelled the ‘Ellis defence’ and the Catholic Church has relied on it for years to avoid making payments to survivors of sexual abuse.
When John Ellis tried to sue the church over the abuse he suffered when he was an altar boy in the 1970s, the courts rejected the claim, ruling the Church was not a legal entity, nor was it liable for abuse committed by a priest.
But ahead of this week’s hearing into John Ellis’ case by the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse, the Church leadership is signalling a major shift that would expose the Church to civil action.
Emily Bourke reports.
EMILY BOURKE: The Catholic Church offered John Ellis $30,000 in compensation for the abuse he suffered as a teenager, and the subsequent trauma that destroyed his marriage and his career in a prominent Sydney law firm.
He rejected the offer and took his case to court, but he lost in the NSW Court of Appeal in 2007.
Over the next week, the Royal Commission will hear how the Church, and Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, George Pell handled the case.
Andrew Morrison SC, who represented John Ellis, says the ruling continues to have repercussions.
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