Melbourne's archbishop has asked a court to reduce a former altar boy's almost $2 million sexual abuse payout as some injuries were caused outside of a pedophile priest's horrific assaults.
Archbishop Peter Comensoli has launched an appeal of a Supreme Court justice's decision to award $1.9 million in damages to one of former priest Desmond Gannon victim's, after he and the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne were found to be vicariously liable for the abuse.
Gannon sexually assaulted the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, three times between 1968 and 1970 while he was an altar boy and pupil at a Catholic primary school in regional Victoria.
