LA church agrees pay out

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay £324 million to 500 victims who were allegedly sexually abused as far back as the 1940s.The settlement is the largest from the Catholic Church in recent years.The case was scheduled to go to trial on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, with 12 plaintiffs accusing former priest Clinton Hagenbach of molesting them. Hagenbach died two decades ago.Had the case gone to trial, lawyers had sought to put Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, in the uncomfortable position of testifying about the Church's response to abuses dating from the 1940s to the 1990s.It will be the largest payment by the US Church since the abuse became public in 2002 and just before a series of trials into sex claims were to begin.In February 2004, a report commissioned by the Church said more than 4,000 Roman Catholic priests in the US had faced sexual abuse allegations in the last 50 years.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

ITN | July 15, 2007

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