A man, who claims to have been raped by a Catholic priest up to 100 times when he was a child, has successfully had an unjust abuse settlement set aside.
In the ACT Supreme Court on Friday, Acting Justice Greg Curtin found the child sexual abuse settlement agreement was not just or reasonable and should be set aside, allowing the man to seek more money.
The judge found the man, who is dyslexic and has limited reading and writing skills, did not understand the settlement documents he was signing and the church had "a substantial inequality of bargaining power".
It is understood this is the first time an ACT court has made such a ruling since the law was changed in 2022.
The victim had taken the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn to court.
'Priests aren't allowed to lie'
A published judgment outlines the man's allegations against Father Lloyd Reynolds, who is now dead, over several years starting in the late 1960s.
Father Reynolds was a priest at the St Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Aranda at the time.
The prolonged abuse began when the alleged victim was six or seven and would swim at the Canberra Olympic Pool.
The man claims it started when Father Reynolds would play with him in the water and touch his genitals, afterwards driving the boy to his presbytery house in Aranda and giving him cherries and ice cream.
About a week later, Father Reynolds visited the boy's home and asked if he wanted to help with tasks at the church.
The priest told the alleged victim's parents he would either drop the boy home late in the evening or he could spend the night.
"[The boy's] parents did not have any issue with [him] assisting Father Reynolds nor did they have any issue with him spending the night at the presbytery," the judgment states.
"The plaintiff said he believed this was because he would be with a member of the church and recalled his mother advising him that 'priests aren't allowed to lie'."
The alleged victim would help distribute hand-outs and bulletins, prepare the church for upcoming services and mow the lawn.
The priest would buy the boy hot chips for dinner when he stayed the night, and give him church pyjamas to wear to bed, before allegedly sexually abusing him.
Over the next several years, the man claims Father Reynolds raped him about 80 to 100 times.
"[The alleged victim] said that he was did not know what to do to make the abuse stop," the judgment states.
"He recalled that Father Reynolds often told him that it was part of the job of a priest to teach boys his age about sex."
As a result, the alleged victim claims he was constantly getting into trouble at school and hoped to be sent to jail to escape Father Reynolds.
This led to the boy being expelled at 14, him having a limited education and basic reading and writing skills.
'Inequality of bargaining power'
In 2006, the man formally lodged a complaint with the church and an investigation was headed by Bishop Patrick Power.
He recalls telling the bishop he had limited reading and writing ability, and was able to record his statement with the help of a scribe.
The man first asked for $2 million in compensation, but Bishop Power is said to have offered him $20,000 "to pay for a nice car".
He rejected this offer and eventually settled for $100,000.
On Friday, Acting Justice Berman found that when the man signed the settlement agreement, "he received no independent legal advice in relation to his rights, obligations, or the impacts of signing these documents".
"The plaintiff suffered from dyslexia and had poor reading and writing abilities. So poor were those abilities that he thought the release was a different document entirely at the time he signed it," the judge stated.
"No one, including a lawyer, explained the contents of the release to the plaintiff before he signed it."
The judge ruled the release was not a just or reasonable agreement, and "the best-case quantum for the plaintiff's damages case would be significantly greater than the settlement sum".
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Bravehearts 1800 272 831; Blue Knot Foundation 1300 657 380.
