Exclusive: Diocese to pay legal costs of sex abuse claimants

A High Court judge has ruled the Middlesbrough Diocese is responsible for both the legal costs of around 150 former residents of the St William's home in Market Weighton – and those of the co-defendants in the compensation case, the De La Salle Brothers.

Judge Hawkesworth QC made an interim order the diocese should pay 400,000 towards De La Salle's stated costs of 862,000. The amounts give the first official indication of the financial burden potentially facing the diocese should it ultimately be held liable for the largest historic abuse claim the Catholic church has faced in the UK.

The alleged victims sued both the diocese and De La Salle, a Catholic order of lay teachers, as being responsible for the management of St William's and therefore being liable for a catalogue of sexual and physical abuse between 1960 and 1992, when the home closed.

They argued the complex management history of St William's left them with no choice but to sue both. In November, Judge Hawkesworth ruled the diocese only was responsible, which would normally mean De La Salle's costs would fall on the claimants. But he has now decided the claimants acted reasonably and the diocese, which had argued De La Salle was accountable for staffing the home, should pay the co-defendant's costs.

The case has been running since 2004, with the claimants' costs already around 2m. The diocese is appealing the November decision, but if it is ultimately held responsible the full costs and compensation bill could amount to 8m.

The claimants' solicitor, David Greenwood, said: "I'm pleased the judge confirmed the claimants acted reasonably in pursuing the Middlesbrough defendants and the De La Salle defendants because it was clear one or both were responsible for the abuse.

"I'm also pleased that, to date, the claimants' damages won't be reduced by having to pay significant amounts of legal costs."

Final payment of the claimants' costs will not be an issue until the case concludes. The Court of Appeal is unlikely to hear the appeal by the diocese until the end of the year and only then will negotiation of settlements begin.

Three claimants have died since the case was launched six years ago, when the home's former headmaster, Brother James Carragher, was sentenced to 14 years in prison after being convicted of abusing boys at the home between 1968 and 1992. He had already been given a seven-year term in 1993 for other offences of serious sexual abuse at the home.

The legal action includes abuse claims involving Carragher but also many claims against other staff. About 2,000 children and 500 staff were at St Williams over the 30-year period.

A diocese spokesman said it would not comment until the appeal is heard later in the year.

A spokesman for De La Salle said: "We are satisfied with the outcome of the (costs) proceedings and we now have to await of the outcome of the legal process in due course."