BishopAccountability.org
 
  Swales Losses Pegged Lower
Estimates of Earnings Lost Due to Sexual Assaults Are in Dispute in the London Trial

By Peter Geigen-Miller
London Free Press [Canada]
Downloaded October 22, 2003

A Toronto chartered accountant testifying in court in London this week challenged the earning potential of three brothers at the centre of a sexual abuse lawsuit. Ian Wollach, an expert in forensic and investigative accounting, came up with much lower earning estimates for John, Ed and Guy Swales than an earlier expert witness.

London chartered accountant James Hoare earlier testified John Swales lost out on more than $1.1 million in past and future income he could have earned if he'd graduated from high school in 1976 and gone to full-time work.

The estimated income loss jumped to more than $1.8 million if Swales had completed a university degree.

Wollach came up with an estimate of $149,942 in lost earnings if Swales had completed high school and $680,128 if he'd completed university.

He said the rival calculations were so vastly different mainly because they were based on different assumptions.

Hoare assumed full-time employment for Swales while Wollach included full and part-time in his calculations.

Testimony has shown Swales has superior intelligence and would have been capable of completing a university degree if his life had not been derailed by sexual abuse. He dropped out of school in Grade 9.

Earlier witnesses have told of 15 lost years in which Swales turned to drug and alcohol abuse and male prostitution.

He turned his life around in the early 1990s and has been self-employed since then, running a vehicle repair business.

Wollach was testifying at the civil trial in which the Swales brothers and their family are suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of London and Rev. Barry Glendinning, a retired priest.

The Swales family is seeking damages for the harm they say resulted from sexual abuse by the priest between 1969 and 1974, when he taught liturgy at St. Peter's Seminary in London.

Glendinning pleaded guilty in London in 1974 to sexually abusing six children and was put on three years' probation.

The trial resumed yesterday after a three-week break. Testimony is expected to conclude next week.

Glendinning, 69, retired and living in Toronto, was absent from the court during this week's testimony, as he has been for much of the trial.

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.