Clergy Child Molesters (113) — References/Archive/Blog

Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:38 PM]
• Sex abuse victim's record payout.
   BRITAIN - ic Coventry By Steve Chilton, Jun 30 2005
   A Coventry man who was repeatedly sexually abused when he was a child by a city priest, was today awarded a record £700,000 in compensation.
   The victim, known as Mr A, was abused for years by former Catholic priest Fr Christopher Clonan.
   The award which was announced by a High Court judge is a UK record for a sex abuse case involving a priest. Costs will also be awarded to Mr A, sending the bill to the Catholic Church to more than £1 million.
   The victim, now 34, was brought up in the Coundon area. He was abused by the priest from about the age of seven, and the assaults continued into his late teenage years.
   The abuse, including rape and other serious assaults, was carried out in Coventry at Fr Clonan’s room at Christ the King Church, the priest’s nearby home, and his second home in Ireland.
• How priest's victim fought for justice.
   BRITAIN - ic Coventry By Steve Chilton, Jun 30 2005
  The man who today was awarded record damages for being sexually abused by a Coventry priest began his campaign for justice 13 years ago - by telling his story to the Evening Telegraph.
   The police had been foiled in their attempt to arrest Fr Christopher Clonan - he had fled and was never to be see again in this country - and the then 22-year-old was gripped by anger, despair and frustration.
   His account of the abuse he suffered from the age of about seven through to his late teenage years was all the more chilling for its soft-spoken delivery. But when the memories became too painful, Mr A a tall, good-looking man dressed in denims, would explode in anger.
   He told how the abuse started with fondling when he was just an ordinary kid with Irish parents living in the Coundon area, where Christ the King Church and social club was and still is, at the heart of the community.
   He was groomed by the assistant parish priest by being given pocket money for odd jobs at the church and club.
• Mystery over disappearing priest.
   BRITAIN U.TV
   Father Christopher Clonan's whereabouts has been the source of as much speculation in recent years and filled as much newspaper copy as the progress of the child abuse legal claims against him. But the mystery ended in May last year when West Midlands Police confirmed that the man known to neighbours in a quiet Melbourne suburb as Christie Oliver was the fugitive priest and that he had died in 1998.
   Born in Clonard, Co Meath, Christopher Oliver Clonan had been a part-time builder and property developer before entering the priesthood and being posted to Christ the King church in Coundon, Coventry, in the 1970s.
   Because of his former trade, he became known as "Father Fix It" for his skills in church construction schemes.
   But the priest, who was known to swear like a trooper and have a weakness for whiskey and cigars, became embroiled in an altogether different project, abusing young parishioners and altar boys. at 06:28 PM
• 'Twist of Faith'.
   UNITED STATES Newsday BY GENE SEYMOUR STAFF WRITER
   July 1, 2005
   The level of intimacy achieved in "Twist of Faith" is so unsettling and deep that one wonders how it could have possibly been achieved. It is one thing to hear adult victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests speak out in uneasy voices on TV and radio. It is yet another, far more potent thing to be allowed into a victim's home, life and struggle to come to grips with what happened.
   The central figure in Kirby Dick's festering sore of a documentary is Tony Comes, a firefighter living in Toledo, Ohio, with his wife and two children. Comes is the kind of man you'd like to be when you grow up: cool, honest and devoted to his family. Yet beneath his resolute exterior, Comes is tormented by what happened to him as a teenager when he was molested by a local priest who invited kids to his lakeside home for weekend parties. Only Comes' parents and his wife knew about the incident before he decided to go public in 2002, the same year allegations of similar sexual abuse by Catholic priests surfaced nationwide. Matters became even more urgent for Comes when his abuser, who had left the priesthood but taught in a public school, moved to a house five doors away from him.
   Filmmaker Dick, whose previous work includes 2002's "Derrida" and 1997's "Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist," helped his project by allowing the Comes family to videotape themselves. This may have been the only means through which Comes and his wife could articulate the complex effects of Tony's legal battles with the church, his own psychological struggle and its impact on his marriage. (Even their counseling sessions are taped.) The most poignant scenes, not surprisingly, involve his children; not just when he has to tell them what happened to their dad as a boy, but when he faces his own violently conflicted feelings toward his daughter's first Communion. at 06:25 PM
• Paedophile priest could cost church millions.
   BRITAIN U.TV
   The Catholic Church could be forced to pay out millions of pounds after the High Court today awarded damages to a man who, during his childhood, was sexually abused by a priest. The man, now 35, was abused for more than 10 years between the ages of seven and 18 by Father Christopher Clonan, his parish priest at Christ The King Church in Coventry.
   The man now suffers from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder and was awarded more than £600,000 in compensation by the High Court in Manchester today.
   Lawyers for the claimant, known as `A`, said the ruling against the Archbishop of Birmingham and the Trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church was "a landmark decision".
   It was the first case against the Catholic Church to reach a British court, with all previous complaints having been settled at an earlier stage.
   With legal costs expected to spiral to more than £400,000, the total fee will be more than £1 million - thought to be the biggest award of its kind in the UK. Today`s ruling means that Clonan, who fled to Australia where he died in 1998, has cost the Church nearly £1.5 million. at 06:20 PM
• Bankruptcy judge disallows 25 sex abuse claims in diocese case.
   TUCSON (AZ) KVOA
   A bankruptcy judge on Thursday tossed out more than two dozen sex abuse claims seeking compensation from the Catholic Diocese of Tucson while approving 20 compromise settlements.
   Only about 23 claims are now still unresolved in the bankruptcy case.
   Judge James Marlar also heard testimony from three people who filed claims, two in open court, though the claimants were identified only by their claim numbers, and the third in a closed courtroom, but did not rule immediately on their validity.
   One woman who filed a claim tearfully recounted how her now-dead husband allegedly had been molested during the early 1950s, when he was 12, by a priest in Miami, Ariz.
   Warren Stapleton, an attorney for a court-appointed tort creditors committee, told the judge he was not discrediting the allegations but asked the judge to throw out the claim because the statute of limitations had expired by the time her husband was 23. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:17 PM]
• Date set for priest's sex trial in Tanzania. - RCC.  
   Xinhua , June 30, 2005
   DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA (Xinhuanet) -- The trial of a Roman Catholic priest charged with sexual offenses involving a 17-year-old boy has been set to start on July 21 in Dar es Salaam.
   Decision on the starting date of the trial was reached after a closed-door preliminary hearing at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in Dar es Salaam, according to local English newspaper The Guardian.
   At least eight witnesses are expected to be summoned in to testify and these include the boy's parents, police officers who detained the accused priest, Sixtus Kimaro, and the boy's teachers. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:06 AM]
• Evil priest victim's pay-out. [Clonan , Birmingham Archdiocese] - RCC. > £600,000. Boy.  
   Sun Online, By PETE BELL, ~ June 30, 2005
  BRITAIN - CATHOLIC Church leaders have been ordered to pay over £600,000 compensation to a man after a priest sexually abused him as a child.
   The man, identified in court as "A", was abused over a ten year period from the age of seven by paedophile Father Christopher Clonan - his priest at Christ The King Church in Coventry.
   The award was made today in Manchester after the High Court heard the man, now 35, suffers from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder. He has lived in a mental home since 2000.
   The sick priest escaped justice by fleeing Coventry in 1992. Police are now convinced he is dead.
   Compensation - mostly for loss of past and future earnings - was awarded against the Archbishop of Birmingham and the trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church.
   Archdiocese of Birmingham spokesman Peter Jennings said the church hoped the settlement would bring an end to the "distress and anguish" the victim has suffered.
• Abuse Priest's Victim Paid Record £635,000.
   BRITAIN - Scotsman By Hugo Duncan, PA, ~ June 30, 2005
   A man who was left psychologically damaged after being systematically abused by a parish priest for ten years was awarded more than £600,000 in compensation today.
   Lawyers acting for the victim of Father Christopher Clonan said they hoped the award - thought to be the biggest of its kind in the UK - would force the church to offer "realistic compensation" to other victims.
   The 35-year-old man, who now suffers from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder, was abused between the ages of seven and 18 by Clonan, his priest at Christ The King Church in Coventry.
   The claimant, known as A, was awarded £635,684 by the High Court in Manchester after bringing a case against the Archbishop of Birmingham and the trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church.
   After today's judgment, ‘A's legal firm, Wokingham-based Clifton Ingram, said they knew of at least eight other victims.
   They claim the church failed to act against Clonan for years after the abuse allegations were first raised.
• Catholic abuse victim given record payout.    
   Science Daily, June 30, 2005
   MANCHESTER, England, (UPI) -- A British man who was sexually abused as a child by a Roman Catholic priest was awarded a record $1.1 million in damages by the High Court Thursday.
   The man was abused by the Rev. Christopher Clonan from the ages of 8 to 18. Now 35, he suffers from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder and requires constant care.
   Clonan committed the abuse while working in Coventry under the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church. He died in Australia in 1998 while on the run from British police.
   High Court Judge Christopher Clarke said the abuse had been regular -- between one and three times a week.
   He awarded $1,147,282 against the Archbishop of Birmingham and the trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese, who admitted legal liability for "failing to prevent these activities."
• Detective says evidence short.  
   The Advocate (Louisiana), www.2theadvocate. com/stories/063005/ new_cult001.shtml , By DEBRA LEMOINE dlemoine@theadvocate.com Florida parishes bureau, ~ June 30, 2005
   AMITE -- Three children are the victims at the center of a child-sex ring operating out of a Ponchatoula church for five years, a sheriff's detective testified in court Wednesday.
   What is missing from the court case as it stands are the allegations of occult activity as the motive for the sexual abuse of children and animals, he said. No physical evidence of the occult, such as pentagrams drawn on the floor and spell books were ever found, Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's Detective Mike DePhillips told the court.
   "You heard today that they couldn't find any evidence of the occult, so that is a dead issue," said Assistant Public Defender Reginald McIntyre, who represents defendants Paul Fontenot and Patricia Pierson.
   Prosecutor Don Wall confirmed after the hearing that the occult element won't be a part of the state's case.
   Instead, the case is based mostly on statements made by the three children -- one girl and two boys -- who repeatedly were raped by, or forced to engage in various sex acts with, most of the defendants at least twice a week from 2000 to 2001 at Hosanna Church and a home of three of its members, DePhillips said. There is at least one other victim who wasn't mentioned in court.[...]
   Defendants in the Tangipahoa Parish Courthouse for the hearing Wednesday were Robbin Lamonica, 45, Holden; Christopher Labat, 24, Hammond; Austin "Trey" Bernard III, 36, Hammond; Paul Fontenot, 21, Hammond; Patricia Pierson, 54, Hammond and Allen R. Pierson, 46, Hammond. All six were indicted by a grand jury last week on various counts of aggravated rape of a juvenile under age 12.
   Three remaining defendants -- former Hosanna Pastor Louis David Lamonica, 45, Tickfaw; Lois Ann Mowbray, 54, Ponchatoula; and Nicole Bernard, 36, Columbus, Ohio, were not in court.[...]
• Lawsuit: St. Johns pastor ignored sexual abuse. [2003 Employee, Pulliam] - Baptist. 4 girls.
   Portland Tribune, www.portland tribune.com/ archview.cgi?id= C062905 , BY Todd Murphy, June/29/05
   PORTLAND (OR) - The pastor of a St. Johns church ignored evidence of sexual abuse by one of the church's employees, then fired two other church employees who had told him of the alleged abuse, according to a civil lawsuit filed last week in Multnomah Circuit Court.
   The two church employees were fired and evicted from their church-owned house after they waited in vain for the pastor of the First Baptist Church of St. Johns to report the abuse to police, then filed a police report themselves, the lawsuit complaint says.
   The church employees' two daughters, then ages 14 and 17, were among four girls alleged to have been sexually abused by the church employee in 2003.
   The lawsuit complaint outlines what it asserts was a litany of actions that Pastor Daniel Pulliam did not do to properly report and investigate the alleged abuse - and what he did do to punish the two church employees and their daughters for bringing the charges forward.
   Portland police now are investigating the abuse; no charges have been filed against the church employee, who left his job and Portland after being accused of abusing the four girls.
• Rape of Faith .
   NASHVILLE (TN) - Nashville Scene By John Spragens, ~ June 30, 2005
   Gentlemen: It is 4:00 am and I could not sleep because I had another one of those nightmares. I thought I would take the time to share with you why."
   That's how David Brown began the six-page letter he wrote to church officials in the early morning hours of June 4 of this year. He wrote it in an attempt to explain himself, to force three men from the Catholic Diocese of Middle Tennessee to understand what he had been going through, in stages, for almost a half-century now: the sleepless nights, the manic temper, the fear of intimacy, the shudder he feels when he remembers stale, smoky breath and scratchy whiskers rubbing against his face. The list goes on.
   Brown didn't think he would send the letter - he never even planned to write it in the first place - but suddenly, it just made sense: dredge up the deepest, most painful memories and force himself, and others, to deal with them. Let a lawyer and two priest administrators know how it feels and smells and sounds to be 15, a lanky, trusting high school sophomore, and to lose your virginity - involuntarily - to a grown man. One you trusted. He wanted to explain what it's like to deal with the shameful stigma that, left to fester, turns into an angry, hurtful silence and haunts you for a lifetime.
   The letter's three recipients, like most people, were probably never sexually assaulted by a Catholic priest. At least they're not saying so if they were. So they probably can't imagine what it would be like to go through such a terrifying experience. Who could?
   But unlike most people, these men are used to dealing with this situation. They work for an organization that has employed multiple sex offenders over the past five decades. The Diocese of Middle Tennessee, like many offices of the Catholic Church nationwide, has seen its former priests investigated by law enforcement officials. It is currently fighting a lawsuit from two plaintiffs who claim they were molested by a former clergyman in Nashville who had left the priesthood.
• Lay groups gather to support clergy sex abuse victims.
   THonline by MARY NEVANS-PEDERSON, ~ June 30, 2005
   IOWA CITY, Iowa - Victims of sexual abuse by Iowa Catholic priests and nuns gathered together with supporters Friday and Saturday to talk about the church's crisis and how it is being handled - or, as some said, mishandled.
   The "Weekend of Hope and Understanding" in Iowa City is one of only a few such gatherings that have been held since the sex abuse crisis broke more than three years ago, according to the national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
   "This is historic stuff - an independent, grass-roots coalition of lay groups addressing these issues," said David Clohessy, who said he repeatedly was abused by his local priest beginning when he was 12. The conference was sponsored by four eastern Iowa lay groups formed to deal with the sex abuse crisis by supporting victims and pushing for local church reform.
   Clohessy described how he thinks the church, especially bishops who are on the front line of the crisis, should respond to ever-emerging claims of sexual abuse of children at the hands of clergy: