A man who said he was molested by a Catholic priest in west Belfast more than 50 years ago is to receive a “significant six-figure sum” in damages, it was announced on Wednesday.
The plaintiff, who is not being named, sued the Diocese of Down and Connor over alleged abuse perpetrated by the late Fr Thomas Cunningham, who resigned in 1976 and died soon afterwards.
The man’s lawyers confirmed the legal action had now been settled at the High Court in Belfast.
Proceedings centred on claims the church failed to protect him as a child who encountered the priest at St Agnes’ Parish in the early 1970s.
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Fr Cunningham came into contact with the schoolboy through a local boxing club and invited him to help out at the parochial house, according to his case.
The child was then allegedly subjected to serious sexual abuse for months.
Belfast firm KRW Law announced a resolution has now been reached in the man’s negligence case against the diocese without any admission of liability.
In a statement outside court, solicitor Gary Duffy said: “The case has been settled for a significant six-figure sum.”
Fr Cunningham was said to have served at the parish until the mid-1970s before being moved to therapeutic facilities for clerics with addictions located at Stroud, Gloucestershire, in western England.
The priest resigned from his position in 1976 and died less than two years later.
A separate legal action involving allegations against him was also settled last year.
“I’ve little doubt these two recent cases, resulting in around £400,000 in compensation, point to evidence of much wider disturbing levels of historic abuse,” Mr Duffy said.
He described the latest outcome as complete vindication for a plaintiff, who is now aged in his late 60s.
“Our client has shown remarkable resilience and bravery in coming forward to confront the trauma he endured,” the solicitor said.
[ Diocese of Dromore to pay £1.2m to five who alleged abuse by priest at school ]
Saying other paedophile priests, Malachy Finnegan and Brendan Smyth, were also moved to the same clinic amid abuse allegations, Mr Duffy said the PSNI and Gloucestershire Police had declined to carry out investigations.
“The church tried to sanitise their behaviour by equating their criminality with other genuine conditions of addiction and mental-health problems in the Stroud facility,” he said.
“We have in turn raised the issue with Stormont’s current investigation into Historical Clerical Child Abuse.
“It is vital that any inquiry should include an investigation into the Stroud facility as part of its terms of reference.”
