A MAN is set to receive £115,000 in damages after claiming to have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a priest in the high school he attended in Newry, Co. Down during the 1980s. His legal costs were also awarded as part of a settlement.
The man’s case, which was heard before the High Court in Belfast, alleges an attack from the late Father Malachy Finegan, who was headmaster at St. Colman’s College in Newry at the time when the incident is meant to have taken place.
Fr. Finegan passed away over twenty years ago in 2002, and despite a number of allegations having come to light, the cleric was never prosecuted or questioned by police during his lifetime.
Though no admission of liability was made by the defence, this case marks the latest in a series of settlements regarding the alleged abuse perpetrated by Finegan during his time as teacher and headmaster at the Newry school.
The priest has also been accused separately of abusing young boys at his local parish of Clonduff in Hilltown, Co. Down, close to the school where he taught.
The first such settlement was reached in 2018, during which time the board of governors at St. Colman’s College condemned the alleged abuse perpetrated by Finegan during his tenure there.
In this latest case, the plaintiff’s legal team claimed that the priest groomed the man as a young boy by conducting a subtle campaign of isolating him from other children at the school. This, they allege, ultimately culminated in a series of severe sexual assaults.
Owen Winters of KRW Law, told the BBC that the man can now begin the ‘healing process’.
He said: “Sadly for many victims and survivors of historical sexual abuse generally, closure remains as elusive as ever. The memories of abuse perpetrated upon them never ever fade away.
“More specifically for many, the horrendous legacy left by Finegan looms as large as it did all those years ago when he was abusing children on a weekly basis. A damages cheque, welcome as it is, will never erase that legacy.”
