Redress scheme established for clerical abuse victims

A Catholic diocese in Northern Ireland is to launch a redress scheme for victims of child abuse committed by clerics under its authority.

Announcing the move, Catholic Archbishop Eamon Martin said the Diocese of Dromore apologised unreservedly for the "hurt and damage" caused to victims and survivors by any priest or church representative in the area.

"The Diocese of Dromore finds such behaviour towards children and vulnerable people abhorrent, inexcusable and indefensible," he said.

The diocese has around £2.5 million to fund the scheme, with individual pay outs set to be capped at £80,000.

The Dromore diocese includes parts of counties Antrim, Down and Armagh.

Around 70 people have come forward in the past 35 years to make allegations of abuse related to the diocese.

The majority of those claim they were abused by notorious paedophile priest Malachy Finnegan who is alleged to have committed a litany of sex crimes on children in the diocese across four decades before his death in 2002.

Fifteen victims have already secured damages in legal settlements with the diocese totally around £2 million.

Archbishop Martin has met with a number of survivors of abuse committed in the diocese and he said he wanted to facilitate the redress scheme and other supports without undue further delay.

The diocese said the process would be victim centred and aimed to provide recognition as well as "reasonable compensation" without the need for lengthy investigation and litigation.

The diocese said it understood that redress could take varying forms.

"As well as enabling the provision of financial redress, the scheme includes the possibility of a personal apology on behalf of the diocese and other ways of providing pastoral support," it said it a statement.

"The diocese will also support the provision of counselling via the Towards Healing service. "The diocese is willing to commit whatever resources it has available for the purpose of redress to this scheme, even if that should exhaust those resources."

The scheme will respond to applications from those alleging sexual abuse, including sexual grooming, which may or may not have been accompanied by physical and or emotional abuse.

The crimes must have occurred when the applicant was below the age of 18. Applications will be assessed by an independent panel, the appointment to which will be managed by a third party organisation.

Decisions on applications will be based on the balance of probabilities. The diocese said the process would fall outside the civil litigation process and would instead be comparable to a mediation.

It said it would be informal in nature but is intended to be binding on the parties, should a resolution be agreed.

Amnesty International said the announcement by the Diocese of Dromore highlighted the need for a public inquiry into clerical sex abuse in Northern Ireland.

Amnesty's Northern Ireland programme director Patrick Corrigan said: "Clerical abuse was not limited to one priest, one parish, one diocese or even one denomination in Northern Ireland. "Redress is just one component of the justice to which victims are entitled and cannot be a substitute for an independent investigation.

"That is why Amnesty is again calling for the Executive to establish a public inquiry into the scale and circumstances of clerical child abuse in Northern Ireland, not restricted to one diocese or one Church.

"We know the problem goes much wider.

"The Father Finnegan scandal is just one example of how paedophile clerics were facilitated by church authorities in continuing their vile abuse.

"It is just one example of how church authorities prioritised the protection of reputation over the protection of children and how the state authorities failed to investigate and intervene to end the abuse."