Data on sex abuse claim not sought, say Brothers

The Christian Brothers have categorically denied that it was their policy to use a counselling service to obtain information on possible compensation claims from abuse victims.

The denial follows a claim that confidential information was passed on to the Brothers by a therapist who was counselling an alleged victim of sex abuse.

The abuse is said to have taken place in an industrial school in the 1950s. The man contacted the Brothers in 1995 and claims that they offered to pay for counselling services for him.

However, when the man decided to sue the Christian Brothers later the same year, he was denied access to copies of correspondence between the therapist and the Christian Brothers by the therapist, who referred to the Brothers as "my client".

The correspondence contains a letter from the Brothers dated January 1995, using the words: "We need to know where we are in relation to the allegation being made."

The alleged victim claims that this is a clear indication that the Christian Brothers were concerned to secure information on any possible claim for compensation.

The correspondence also contains a letter from the therapist to the Brothers, saying that the Christian Brother who was the subject of the allegations "is relatively safe for the moment, as far as I can tell".

However, a spokesman for the Christian Brothers said yesterday that the words were written because the alleged victim had been asked to put his accusation in writing and he had not then done so, and the brothers were concerned that they should know where they stood in relation to their treatment of the alleged abuser.

The line in relation to the Brother being "relatively safe" could be interpreted as being relatively safe in terms of being exposed to the company of children, the spokesman insisted.

"It is open to misinterpretation and it has been misinterpreted," said the spokesman, who added that the Christian Brothers found it "reprehensible that their actions in this case are being so badly misrepresented".

The spokesman added that in March 1998 the Christian Brothers had apologised to anyone who might have been abused by one of their number and had offered counselling services to the victims.

The spokesman added that stories that the Brothers had sought confidential information from the counsellors would only undermine confidence in the counselling service.

Meanwhile, a complaint against the therapist involved in the case has been lodged with the Irish Association for Counsellors and Therapists, which is conducting an investigation, a Sunday newspaper claimed yesterday.