Thursday, November 1, 2012

Handling of Damages for Sexual Abuse Victims by The Legion of Christ


Jimmy Savile was revealed to have been a predatory pedophile with numerous victims


MOST VICTIMS GET VERY LITTLE, IF ANY, INDEMINIZATION. SIX FIGURES ARE OUT OF THE QUESTION.

Since the latest Maciel revelations about his double life and fathering children outside of celibacy and wedlock forced the Legion and the Vatican to admit that he had also Sexually Abused Seminarians and other people, the Apostolic Delegate set up a Commission to Indemnify Victims.

1] This Commission was not independent
And in the practice is composed of Legionaries
who have the last say.
Until recently, Superior General, Alvaro Corcuera [a close collaborator of the abuser, Fr. Maciel], had the last word as to who got how much.

2] the Commission would only deal with abuses committed by Fr. Marcial Maciel and not abuses attributed to other Legionaries such as Frs. Guillermo Izquierdo, Salvador Maciel, etc. which have appeared in www.regainnetwork.org testimonies or other parts of the Internet

3] the commission was set up in such as way that those who had begun legal proceedings were excluded. This means that the almost all the original accusers, Barba, Jurado, etc. in Mexico -who for their part refused to go through the humilating process, got nothing from the Legion.

4] after long, arduous and humiliating deliberations the Legion gave some money to a few people.

5] with rare -if any- exceptions the amounts were minimal. Legion supporters may think victims were well taken care of. LIES. the amounts, mentioned by Legion and by DePaolis, that Legion considers are something in the area of 20, 30, or 40 thosand dollars.

---the end of the article below, relating to the victims of Jimmy Savile, shows how much his victims hope to get if their case is successful

LONDON (Reuters) - The people who were sexually abused in their youth by one of the BBC's most celebrated TV stars will sue the state-funded broadcaster and Jimmy Savile's estate, a lawyer representing some of the victims said on Thursday.

The abuse claims against the late Savile, described by police as one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders, have sullied the reputation of the BBC and thrown the jobs of its current and former boss into doubt.

Hundreds of victims have come forward in the scandal which casts Savile, a cigar-chomping DJ turned television star feted by royalty and politicians, as a pedophile who raped or groped children on BBC property.

"Certainly one is going to sue the BBC and all are going to be suing the estate," Alan Collins, a lawyer representing 12 Savile victims, told Reuters by telephone.

"If Savile did things in his capacity as a BBC employee then the employer, the BBC, is potentially liable," said Collins, though he said the main objective for most victims was to obtain recognition of the abuse.

Savile died last year at the age of 84.

Legal action against the BBC could would further undermine the position of Director General George Entwistle, who has been lampooned by the local media as "baffled, bumbling and clueless" for his perceived poor handling of the worst crisis in the corporation's 90-year history.

Questions have also been raised about Entwistle's predecessor, Mark Thompson, who is set to take over at the New York Times Co.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said the sex abuse allegations leave the BBC and other institutions with serious questions that they must answer.

Lawyers representing some of the male and female victims, some of whom were as young as eight when the abuse occurred, said their clients had indicated an organized pedophile ring involving other celebrities had existed at the BBC during the height of Savile's fame in the 1970s and 80s.

A spokeswoman for the BBC declined immediate comment.

In a sign of preparation for claims, the Financial Times reported that Savile's 4.3 million pound ($6.93 million) estate has been frozen in response to the allegations.

Such abuse claims often secure relatively small amounts of compensation, said Collins, who specializes in personal injury cases.

"Damages for these sorts of cases are notoriously low," he said, quoting average figures for his own cases of around 30,000 to 35,000 pounds. "People would be quite shocked about how low damages are in the UK for this sort of thing."