Christian Brothers accused of trying to deal with abuse legacy as ‘cheaply as possible’

• Published date: 08 August 2023
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

John Gordon SC, for the victim, said the congregation was playing “ducks and drakes with the legal system” and that the Dublin-based head of the Christian Brothers in Europe, Bro David Gibson, must think what it is doing is “good business”

Karl Finnegan, for Gibson, in response, said there was “absolutely no intention to hide assets” from the victim. However, there is no doubt the strategy adopted by the brothers in the case is a disincentive for others seeking damages from the brothers in historical sex abuse cases.

Gordon is representing former Westland Row CBS student Kenneth Grace, who was sexually abused in the Dublin school by former principal Paul Hendrick (75). Hendrick, a Christian Brother, was recently jailed for four years, having pleaded guilty to the abuse.

In the High Court, the congregation has adopted a strategy that, Gordon said, is unique in his experience. Because the Christian Brothers is an unincorporated association, it cannot be sued directly. Most religious congregations select a nominee to represent it for the purpose of litigation, but in the case of Kenneth Grace, and about 30 other historical child sex abuse claims currently lodged in the High Court, the Christian Brothers have opted not to do so.

The decision by Gibson (73), and his predecessor as provincial of the European province of the Christian Brothers, Edmund Garvey (78), not to provide a nominee has meant Kenneth Grace has to sue all the brothers who were in the order at the time he was abused, to progress his claim. He has had to seek multiple court orders to get information from the congregation that it has refused to provide voluntarily. The legal costs involved are substantial and continue to accumulate.

Horrible agenda

According to Gordon, the congregation is pursuing this strategy because it believes it is the most cost-effective way of responding to the sex abuse claims. “It seems that the obvious purpose of this is to get us into a room to point out the difficulties we have, seek to get rid of my client’s case as cheaply as possible, and discourage other people from pursuing the Christian Brothers because it’s so troublesome. What a horrible agenda, what a distasteful, despicable agenda, but that is the agenda,” he told the High Court.

The congregation’s strategy is working, according to Damian O’Farrell, an Independent councillor on Dublin City Council who settled a historical sex abuse claim against the brothers some years ago, before they adopted their...