Catholic Church considers appeal while facing huge sex-abuse hit

The Catholic Church faces a potentially huge hit to its finances with several new sex abuse claimants emerging after $1.9m in damages were paid to a former altar boy.

The Catholic Church is considering appealing a Victoria Supreme Court decision to award $1.9m to a former altar boy who was abused by a priest. Picture: Eugene Hyland

The Catholic Church is confronting a potentially huge hit to its ­finances, with several new sex abuse claimants emerging after a $1.9m damages payout to a former altar boy in the archdiocese of Melbourne.

Rightside Legal lawyer Michael Magazanik said several people had come forward alleging offending by disgraced Catholic priest Desmond Gannon in the wake of the huge payout this year to one of his victims.

The Catholic Church is considering appealing the decision by Victorian Supreme Court judge Andrew Keogh, who ordered the church to pay the $1.9m for pain, suffering and economic loss to the former parishioner.

The victim alleged there was negligence by the archdiocese and it was vicariously liable for the abuse perpetrated by Gannon, a serial offender. Responsibility was finally sheeted home to the church, which had been warned in the past about Gannon’s behaviour but failed to act.

The altar boy was sexually ­abused three times by Gannon between 1968 and 1970 but he was not convicted and jailed for the abuse until 2009.

Mr Magazanik said he believed there were still a large number of people in the community who had been offended against by clergy and had not previously alerted authorities.

“I think there is a really big cohort of clergy abuse survivors who have never come forward,” he said.

“We’ve had a steady run of new clients since the Gannon decision. The church is deluded if it believes this completely avoidable disaster is coming to an end.”

The church did not comment on the Gannon matter but has confirmed an appeal against the Gannon decision was being considered.

The massive Gannon payout comes as the archdiocese of Melbourne battles strong financial headwinds from the pandemic, the long-term implications of the sex-abuse crisis and changing community attitudes to religion.

It is believed there have been dozens of Gannon victims.

The neighbouring diocese of Ballarat has also confronted a relentless series of complaints in recent decades, many related to Gerald Ridsdale, whom police believe could have attacked hundreds of victims.

The Victorian government passed legislation in 2019 that en­abled the courts to set aside past deeds of release relating to child abuse, which could have a profound impact on the number of large civil claims that could follow.

There are expected to be hundreds of people in Victoria who have signed deeds of release in exchange for relatively small financial payouts, under the Catholic Church’s Melbourne Response and Towards Healing, and via other institutions.

Chris Goddard, adjunct professor at UniSA and an expert on abuse matters, said large payouts such as the Gannon case contrasted sharply with the small payments afforded victims under the Melbourne Response and other schemes.

He said the recent large civil payments would still not restore people’s lives.

“It’s to try to give restitution to lives that were destroyed,” he said.

In the case of Gannon’s victim, most of the payout was for loss of earning capacity damages.

The Gannon victim previously had received $139,000 in compensation under the Melbourne Response but that payment and deed was not a barrier to the claim as it was an ex-gratia payment made when he had no legal rights.

There are questions about whether many – or even any – of the Melbourne Response deeds will protect the church after legislative reform and legal precedents were set.

Legal sources familiar with the Gannon decision said the church would have no option but to ­appeal the decision because of the financial implications of the case, even though some church cases are covered, at least in part, by ­insurance.