The diocese said Slater and Gordon was focusing on one aspect of the case. In a statement, it said the case was far more complex than simply a question about the religion of the survivor. The diocese said in response that it “regrets any further distress caused to survivors during proceedings”. “It’s incredibly disappointing for abuse survivors to be treated so poorly by the institution that failed to protect them in the first place and is vicariously liable for the significant impact the abuse they suffered on their lives,” Georgaklis said. When he presented the fresh statements showing his service at the church, the church settled. The process caused added trauma and significant legal expense. The Slater and Gordon New South Wales abuse lawyer Jonathan Georgaklis said the suggestion delayed the claim by more than a year, as the survivor gathered statements from family and former acquaintances, some of whom he hadn’t spoke with in more than a decade, to prove he had served as an altar boy at St Joseph’s. The church alleged that this meant he could not have been an altar server at St Joseph’s and therefore could not have been abused. His lawyers, Slater and Gordon, say the church took an aggressive approach to the claim, denying in court documents the abuse could have occurred because the plaintiff had been baptised in the Anglican church. The survivor alleged he was abused by Ryan at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Cessnock in the early 1990s, when he worked as an altar server for Sunday mass. In late 2020, a survivor who wishes to remain anonymous, sued the Maitland-Newcastle diocese for alleged abuse at the hands of the notorious pedophile Father Vincent Ryan, a priest who, before his recent death, served more than two decades in jail for abusing dozens of children.
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