Boston clergy end child sex row with $10m payoff

Catholic authorities in Boston have agreed to pay $10m (£6.5m) to 86 people who accused a convicted paedophile priest of molesting them. The settlement brings to a close the acrimonious legal dispute that triggered the abuse scandal still shaking the church in the United States.

The deal, which was approved by a Boston judge yesterday, was small compared with the $30m sum initially agreed in March between Cardinal Bernard Law and the alleged victims of John Geoghan.

But that deal was overturned by a church finance council, which said it might bankrupt the archdiocese.

The plaintiffs' lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, said they had accepted the new figure with resignation, because their need to put the three-year dispute behind them had overwhelmed their willingness to keep fighting.

Geoghan was convicted of molesting a 10-year-old boy and sentenced to eight years in prison in January.

"They want closure, and they understand that the church does not really care about their emotional wellbeing," Mr Garabedian said. "It's time to move on, and try to heal as best they can, if at all."

The deal was struck after the last person to be persuaded, the mother of two boys allegedly raped by Geoghan, reluctantly agreed.

Janet Green said she felt she had been "manipulated into seeing this as the only way out of this mess".

Ms Green's sons will receive about $200,000 before Mr Garabedian's fees - a third of the total - are deducted. She told the Boston Herald: "Basically we're being told, 'Sign now, and you'll have a cheque in two weeks, or else we'll be in court for five more years'."

The 50 people who say Geoghan raped or molested them will share $9.3m, and 20 people who witnessed abuse will share $540,000. Relatives of the victims will receive a further $160,000 between them.

But campaigners said the punitive effect of the sum could not be evaluated because the church was so secretive about its finances.

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors' Network for those Abused by Priests, said: "No one has been able to get an unbiased picture of the resources of the diocese, so we were outraged when the church kept saying 'we're too poor', without disclosing at all the finances they had.

"It's clear that the church officials only settled because the judge got terribly impatient with their stalling tactics - there's no evidence of a change of heart."

The Boston plaintiffs inspired abuse survivors across the country to come forward, Mr Clohessy said.

"Their courage has inspired hundreds to begin the healing process and to make the church safer. These people are absolute heroes."