David Martin committed suicide in April 2002 and left a suicide note that has brought charges against a Nova Scotia priest. The reason? He accused that several priests at Diocese of Antigonish, had sexually abused children in their care. And now, his brother Ronald Martin, has filed a class action against the Diocese of Antigonish on Tuesday.
The charges involved 18 children between the ages of eight to 15.
The suicide note of David accused former priest Hugh Vincent MacDonald of sexual abuse. MacDonald, who served in various parishes in Pictou, Guysborough and Antigonish counties and in Cape Breton, was facing 27 charges when he died in 2004.
The class action charges are that MacDonald and several other priests were sexually abusing children in their care between 1962 and this year. However, the allegation has not been proved in the court yet. The lawsuit claims that the diocese sent priests for treatment for “sexual deviations” while failing to disclose their behaviour to the proper authorities.
The class action, was prepared by McKiggan. It has been filed under Nova Scotia’s new Class Proceedings Act and announced in a release Tuesday. McKiggan in a statement says,
The priest abuse scandals across North America have raised serious questions of how these kinds of horrible crimes against children could happen again and again in parish after parish over several decades.
To conclude, this is not the first case against the diocese. Fifteen years ago, McKiggan filed lawsuits against the diocese after two priests were convicted of sexually assaulting more than a dozen boys in their parishes in the 1960s and 1970s. Unfortunately, this is more of the same. The same pattern of secrecy; the same lack of accountability, said McKiggan.
Source: The Canadian Press
Filed under Class Action, General Law | Tags: Diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia's new Class Proceedings Act, Priest Abuse Scandal, Sexual Abuse of Children | Comment Below
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David Martin committed suicide in April 2002 and left a suicide note that has brought charges against a Nova Scotia priest. The reason? He accused that several priests at Diocese of Antigonish, had sexually abused children in their care. And now, his brother Ronald Martin, has filed a class action against the Diocese of Antigonish on Tuesday.
