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Catholic Church claimed child sex abuse victims ‘consented’

B

badboy78660

Member
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/catholic-church-sex-abuse-paedophile-criminal-injuries-compensation-scheme-victim-support-sexual-a7903396.html

The Catholic Church and British local authorities have been accused of using a legal loophole to avoid paying compensation to victims of child sex abuse.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, a government agency, has denied some children financial settlements because it said the victims had “consented” to the abuse, a group of charities has warned.

Lawyers representing victims have warned that this line of defence is becoming increasingly common.

One case that the charity Victim Support brought attention to involved a 12-year-old girl who was given alcohol, brought into woodland and then sexually assaulted by a 21-year-old male. The girl was denied compensation because she had “voluntarily” gone into the woods with the man.

“No child ever gives their ‘consent’ to being abused, and the increased use of this line of defence, although still quite rare, is worrying,” said Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England. "I have contacted the Ministry of Justice previously and again recently about this issue and the Government should look urgently at what can be done to tackle it.”

The Sunday Telegraph reported that it had seen documents regarding two cases where the defence was used. A claimant who was raped at the age of 15 was told by lawyers representing the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark that his abuse "actually occurred in the context of a consensual relationship (albeit one the claimant in retrospect now appears to regret)".

Child sex abuse victims given power to challenge if cases are shelved

The victim said "I was below the legal age of consent anyway and there's a grooming element to that kind of situation. It was totally disregarded and it made me feel really small." The case was finally settled, with the Catholic Church paying out £80,000.

Dino Nocivelli, a specialist child abuse solicitor at Bolt Burdon told Kent Live: “It is time for the church to practise what they preach and to admit their failings, to take account of the damage this has caused to the lives of far too many children and lastly to apologise for the abuse.”

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Southwark said that the church does not comment on individual cases out of respect for the claimant’s privacy. He added that the Archdiocese “supports the right of anyone who has suffered harm to seek compensation.”

Since the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) was launched in 2012, approximately 700 victims and survivors of child sexual abuse have had their claims rejected.
Click to expand...
 
K

Keikaku

Member
Literal, actual evil.

If you're the sort of lawyer who'd be willing to stoop to this level or the sort of defendent who'd endorse these tactics, you're human filth.
 
R

rjinaz

Member
I mean if this were a thing there would basically be no way to prosecute child sex abuse ever.

Fuck off.
 
G

GrizzleBoy

Banned
Yeeeeeeaaah, don't do that.

It's like saying that a parent should let a five year old buy cigarettes because the five year old decided they were old and mature enough to smoke.

That's not how it works.
 
N

Nevasleep

Member
Regardless of what the church thinks, the fact a government agency - Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme denied the claims is fucked up.
Who are the idiots or evil running the CICA?
 
T

The Wraith

Member
And this is why the catholic church is loosing influence across the world. In this day of instant information everyone see them for the pieces of shit they truly are.
 
L

Lowmelody

Member
Nevasleep said:
Regardless of what the church thinks, the fact a government agency - Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme denied the claims is fucked up.
Who are the idiots or evil running the CICA?
Click to expand...

Going by the last thread about priests reporting child abuse, it's clear that some people still subscribe to the idea that 'deeply held spiritual beliefs' supersede the law regardless of the well being of children. Some of them must work there.
 
Q

Quonny

Member
Well, with that reasoning, if someone voluntarily walks over to me after I call them over I have every right to murder, rape, or mug them.

Thanks logic.
 
J

JonnyDBrit

Member
LegendofDragoonLives said:
This is fucked up as a Catholic person. Pay them the fucking money ffs.
Click to expand...

Yep. I cannot fathom the refusal just to accept culpability and instead implicitly blame the freaking minor for it.

Nevasleep said:
Regardless of what the church thinks, the fact a government agency - Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme denied the claims is fucked up.
Who are the idiots or evil running the CICA?
Click to expand...

But also this. The job of the government in this situation should be to pursue compensation and charges, not a damned settlement that lets the Church off.
 
L

Lyon N. Laap

Member
UnluckyKate said:
Hence the expression age of consent
Click to expand...

Which is what I don't understand. How are the Church and this government authority claiming that children below the age of consent were able to give consent?

How does that make sense? What exactly is the loophole? That children cannot consent but they can consent to be placed in a position where they cannot consent?

What the hell?

Dash_Riprock said:
Deathbed repentance means they won't.
Click to expand...

That's not actually how it works.
 
B

Beefy

Member
Nevasleep said:
Regardless of what the church thinks, the fact a government agency - Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme denied the claims is fucked up.
Who are the idiots or evil running the CICA?
Click to expand...

The church is powerful enough to get shit swept under a rug sadly
 
Z

ZedLeppelin006

Banned
Disgusting. It's things like this and a bunch of others that always kept me away from organized religion throughout my life.

Shame on these monsters.
 
C

Cmerrill

You don't need to be empathetic towards me.
Typical Catholic Church behavior.

The most corrupt and disgusting organization in existence. I hate them.
 
D

DominusLeges

Member
Linkura said:
They know they're all going to hell, right?
Click to expand...

Nah they'll just go to confession and buy some indulgences while they're at it. Bing bada boom clean slate again.

Yea this is gross and horribly wrong. I would not be surprised to see the Pope address or comment on this at all.
 
S

SuperBowser

Member
Grotesque. It's not enough to psychologically damage these people for the rest of their lives, but now one of the richest institutions in the world wants to screw them out of the marginal compensation they deserve.

I know it's not the right but this story really makes me want the defendants named and shamed in these cases.
 
B

bonesmccoy

Banned
The original article in the Telegraph is notably less sensational.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...icised-claiming-child/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_fb_tmg

Given what we see in these cases involving teenagers, it seems like it wouldn't be a bad idea to raise the age of consent to 18.

Cmerrill said:
The most corrupt and disgusting organization in existence. I hate them.
Click to expand...

The Church's charities provide a staggering amount of services all over the globe. The detestable actions by (a small number of) the clergy do not invalidate all the good work it does.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
If anyone wants a "fun" debate on the Catholic Church this Hitchens and Fry effort has always been a good watch. Is the Catholic church a force for good?

https://youtu.be/JZRcYaAYWg4

The opposition to them are pretty terrible in a debate setting, so it's more an own goal than anything. The listeners voting at the end showing that.

As always as a political organisation the Catholic Church is absolutely garbage, right up to the pope. Ymmv with individual Catholics and of course there are many great people involved in the faith. The structure of the organisation and what it has done and continues to do with its power and wealth from the Vatican is what is terrible. Men in dogmatic places of power continue to be awful.

If it's not rampant paedophilia protection and anti-LGBT/women's rights in the West it's wanting to keep the poverty and ill-educated cycles going in Africa and other countries. Those damn condoms! Keep the aids cycles going everyone because that's God's way of hating the gays! Even although the amount of female sex workers dying from aids is staggering too.

Everything with kids and paedophilia should arguably be what boils the blood the most. Not just that the priests commit the acts, but it's the response from the Vatican to try and cover things up, deal outside the law and offer protection to the priests by whisking them away to the Vatican where traditional law struggles to touch them. The fact the Vatican can operate within its own laws is absolutely ridiculous. Religious institutions should never have that kind of power because it always ends badly, as history shows and as is still going on in this day and age.
 
A

Altazor

Member
how in the actual fuck is this "defense" accepted by the respective authority? THE WHOLE POINT OF THE AGE OF CONSENT IS THAT THERE IS NO CONSENT BELOW IT. NO MATTER WHAT THE MINOR SAID OR EXPRESSED.

NO.

CONSENT.

fucking pieces of shit. Evil cunts.
 
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