Victorian court allows abused altar boy’s children and wife to sue Catholic church

The wife and two children of an abused altar boy have sued the Catholic church, alleging they are ‘secondary victims’ of its failure to prevent Father Bryan Coffey from abusing children. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

A Victorian court has paved the way for the children and wife of an abused altar boy to sue the Catholic church, alleging the church’s failings caused their father and husband to become a violent alcoholic and drug addict who beat them later in life.

The abuse victim, now dead, was an altar boy in north-west Victoria in the mid-1970s when he was allegedly raped by Father Bryan Coffey, a parish priest who allegedly used his role as the supervisor of the local school’s cross-country team to prey on children.