Church in New York will pay out £21m to abuse victims

THE Catholic church in New York has agreed to pay $27.5 million (£21 million) to four men who said they were sexually abused by a religion teacher when they were children.

In one of the largest ever such settlements, the Diocese of Brooklyn agreed to make the payments after the men detailed incidents of abuse between 2003 and 2009.

Each of the victims, who were aged between eight and 12 at the time, will receive $6.87million (£5.22million).

Ben Rubinowitz, their lawyer, said: “We are glad to see the church finally being brought to justice. It continued for months and in certain cases for years. The egregious nature of the conduct is the reason that the church paid what they did.”

Lawyers for the victims said Angelo Serrano, 67, a lay teacher of religion at St Lucy’s-st Patrick’s Church in Brooklyn, repeatedly abused the victims.

Serrano is serving a 15-year jail sentence after pleading guilty in 2011 to inappropriate sexual conduct with a child.

According to the victims’ legal team, a priest had admitted to seeing Serrano abuse a child but did not address it at the time.

The settlement came a month after a report detailed decades of sexual abuse involving more than 300 Catholic priests in Pennsylvania. Many US states are looking into historic abuse cases.

In a statement, the Diocese of Brooklyn said: “We hope this is another step forward in the healing process for these claimants.

“The Diocese remains committed to ensuring that its parishes, schools and youth programmes remain safe and secure for young people.”

It added that Serrano was a “volunteer worker” and “was not clergy or an employee of the diocese or parish”.

Two weeks ago the New York state Attorney General issued subpoenas to all eight Catholic dioceses in the state as part of an investigation into the handling of sex abuse allegations.