Sex Abuse Survivors Can Finally Sue the Catholic Church in Victoria, Australia

For the last 16 years, survivors of child sex abuse at the hands of Catholic Church officials in Victoria, Australia, had little to no legal recourse. But that has all changed now, as the government has closed a loophole that kept the church from being sued. That loophole, of course, is the infamous “Ellis defense,” which was inappropriately named after former altar boy and alleged abuse victim John Ellis. Ellis lost his case against the Catholic Church because its lawyers convinced a court it didn’t legally exist because its assets were held in a protected trust, and the court continued to use that defense for more than a decade.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/05/30/sex-abuse-survivors-can-finally-sue-the-catholic-church-in-victoria-australia/