MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Friday, Dec. 11, 2015
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
The Missouri Supreme Court may let a child sex abuse victim expose his predator in civil court even though the crimes happened years ago. We hope this brave victim succeeds.
Courts and lawmakers are increasingly realizing it’s unjust and dangerous to impose arbitrary, archaic, predator-friendly deadlines that prevent most child sex abuse victims from using civil cases to warn parents about pedophiles. We hope Missouri’s Supreme Court will join this growing, wise and compassionate trend.
It’s hard to screen out predators. It’s easy, however, to stop them after a few victims instead of after dozens of victims. We just have to make it less difficult for victims to expose those who commit or conceal child sex crimes in court. That will make an enormous contribution to the safety of kids. It will also deter employers and co-workers who may be tempted to ignore or hide known or suspected child sex crimes. This is a rare situation in which justice, prevention, healing and compassion can all be served by one step: cracking open courthouse doors so more crime victims can deter heinous crimes.
Shame on Gerard Noce & Boy Scout officials who claim that only individuals, not institutions, can be sued under Missouri law. That kind of disingenuous, self-serving hair-splitting is immoral. Time and time again, institutions and their top officials ignore, hid or enable child predators. To let them off the hook for such irresponsible and selfish wrongdoing would endanger more kids and embolden more employers to act callously and deceitfully in child sex cases.
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