FILE PICTURE
(PARKER CROOK / iNFOnews.ca)
February 24, 2022 – 06:00
CONTENT NOTICE
An Okanagan Indian Band member is suing the Catholic Church alleging she was sexually abused as a child while attending a church-run elementary school in Vernon.
In a statement filed Feb. 22, the woman alleges she was sexually assaulted by a priest when she was seven and attended St. James Catholic School in Vernon in 1970.
The woman is the fourth person in recent years to file a lawsuit against the Vernon Catholic Church over allegations of sexual abuse that arose decades earlier.
The plaintiff brought an action in Supreme Court against the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Kamloops and John Doe.
The court document says the woman does not know the name of the Catholic priest, but his identity is known to the diocese.
According to the notice of claim, the woman attended St. James Catholic School from 1968 to 1972.
“In or about the spring of 1970, when the plaintiff was seven years old and enrolled as a pupil at St. James’s School, she was in the schoolyard during a lunch break after class when she was entrance into St. James’s Church,” the notice read. of complaint. “Inside St. James’s Church, the complainant met John Doe. John Doe grabbed her, picked her up, touched her genitals, entered her vagina and kissed her on the mouth, neck and face.”
Court documents indicate that the woman was in the care and supervision of St. James School staff and that the priest was in a position of power, trust and authority over the woman.
iNFOnews.ca chose not to identify the woman.
READ MORE: BC man sues after being sexually abused at Vernon church
“John Doe’s conduct was intentional, malicious and was committed in the knowledge that it would cause the plaintiff humiliation, indignity, mental distress and psychological injury,” the notice of claim reads. “Alternatively, John Doe’s conduct was committed with a wanton, negligent and willful disregard for the consequences to the complainant’s psychological health.”
The court document says the woman suffered from trauma, depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, anxiety and suicidal ideation, among other conditions.
The woman also has a distrust of religious figures and religious institutions.
“As a result of the sexual assault and the injuries sustained, the Complainant has suffered and will continue to suffer a loss of enjoyment of life,” the document reads.
The woman is one of several people who have filed a lawsuit against the Vernon Catholic Church.
In 2020, two brothers reached an out-of-court settlement with the Archdiocese of Kamloops after they said they were sexually assaulted by Father Herbert Bourne at St. James’s Church in the 1970s.
The brothers’ lawyer at the time said he was sure there were more victims there.
Recently, another man filed a lawsuit against the Vernon church, alleging he was sexually assaulted in the 1980s by a visiting priest from Montreal.
A former teacher who taught at a Catholic school in Kamloops in the 1970s was awarded $850,000 in damages in 2020 after a Supreme Court judge ruled the Archdiocese of Kamloops failed to protect the teaching “predatory instincts” from a “playboy” priest.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
READ MORE: BC man sues after allegedly sexually assaulted at Vernon nursing home
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