Ex-altar boy who claimed priest raped him sues Catholic Church

A former altar boy who claims he was repeatedly raped by a priest is suing the Catholic Church.

Jim Lawn, 54, said he was raped and beaten by Father John Gowans at St Patrick’s Church in Dumbarton in the 1970s.

He is pursuing a civil action against the church in relation to alleged historic abuse by Fr Gowans, who died in 1999.

The church has apologised to anyone who has suffered abuse and said lessons have been learned.

Mr Lawn, who has waived his right to anonymity, said he was eight years old when the abuse began.

He said that, after Mass on weekdays, he was the only boy around and Fr Gowans would lead him to the sacristy – a private room for preparing Mass – where he would be abused and beaten.

Mr Lawn said: “Father Gowans told me I’d burn in hell if I refused him or spoke out.”

“You never stop feeling like a victim and you never stop suffering – but if you talk to someone you at least don’t need to do it alone.”

Recalling the first attack, he said: “He (Gowans) took me into a toilet just off the corridor leading from the sacristy to the church. In a very short space of time it went from initial touching to a full attack.

“I was terrified and completely powerless to stop any of it.

“They nearly all happened like this and it happened nearly every week for two or three years.”

Mr Lawn told his parents and GP about the alleged abuse in the early 2000s and filed a historic abuse complaint at Clydebank police station in 2011.