Sexual abuse bill to cover church cases

Legislation takes aim at immunity, statute of limitations for offenders

BOSTON. The clergy sex abuse scandal may not make daily headlines anymore, but the need to protect children from pedophiles is something that will not be pushed to the background. Victims and advocates converged on the State House yesterday, pushing for stricter child protection laws.

The Joint Committee on the Judiciary yesterday held a hearing on more than a dozen proposed bills concerning child sex abuse and sex offenders. Among them was comprehensive legislation drafted in the wake of the Catholic church abuse scandal — which prompted scores of victims to come forward over the past decade.

“This bill is about helping children. ... It’s about prevention. It’s about deterrence,” said Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney who has represented more than 100 victims in suits against the Catholic church.

The bill would increase penalties for mandated reporters, such as teachers, who fail to report sexual abuse, eliminate the criminal statute of limitations for sex crimes against minors, eliminate the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse brought within three years after reporting abuse to law enforcement and dissolve the charitable immunity defense for sexual abuse. In addition it creates a state commission that would report to the legislature annually on proposals and legislation that would strengthen child protection laws.

“Passing this bill is the right thing to do in order to protect future generations,” said Robert Costello, a victim of priest abuse.

As an altar boy and Boy Scout, Costello said he was molested from the late 1960s to the mid- 1970s by Father John Cotter at St. Theresa’s church in West Roxbury.

“I could tell you stories that would make your head spin,” said Costello. “As a survivor I feel a certain responsibility to see [this bill] through because there were so many victims before me that couldn’t because of the shame, the fear.”