Calls for church to compensate victims

The NSW Greens member David Shoebridge has released a  consultation paper with proposed legislation changes which would allow sexual abuse claims against the Catholic Church Proprety Trust.

Mr Shoebridge said his draft bill would allow victims of Catholic Church-related sexual abuse to directly access the funds held in the Church’s property trust.

“What the bill will do is it will force the Catholic Church to defend sexual abuse cases on their real merits but not hide behind the legal technicalities and trust structures,” he said.

Under the existing law, the Catholic Church is not an independent legal entity, he said. Its assets, held in separate property trusts established under the Roman Catholic Church Property Trust Act 1936, is not accessible by victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy.

Many abuse victims seeking legal recourse have been stymied by a technical loophole called the Ellis Defence, named after victim John Ellis.

The 2007 case found the Church was not a legal entity and could not be sued. The priest responsible for Mr Ellis’ abuse in the 1970s had passed away and was penniless, leaving Mr Ellis with little means of redress.

Angela Sdrinis, a Melbourne lawyer who has handled about 300 cases of church-related sexual abuse, said the Catholic Church and other religious organisations with similar structures often used the Ellis Defence in sexual abuse cases.

“What happened with claims against the Catholic Church is that lawyers like me no longer bother suing them because when we sue them, we are hit with the Ellis Defence,” she said.

Ms Sdrinis said a problem with the usual alternatives of out of court settlements was that victims unhappy with the final negotiated outcomes had nowhere else to go.

She said the challenge of Mr Shoebridge’s proposed reforms would be making the Catholic Church an entity that could be sued without affecting its rights to manage its own affairs.

“I think at the moment it’s a reasonably good try, but it’s a question of that balance.”

Mr Shoebridge said he expected the Church to have significant political support in opposing his bill in state parliament, but the moral argument of the abuse victims would be a persuasive force against the opposition.

“I think it’s a question of taking it one step at a time,” he said.

Spokesperson of activist group Broken Rites, Dr Wayne Chamley, said the passage of the bill would encourage more victims to come to light.

Cardinal George Pell has refused to meet with Mr Shoebridge to discuss matters relating to sexual abuse cases by members of the clergy.

By Josephine Kwan