The Christian Brothers and a strategy that hinders abuse victims seeking reparations

Retired Christian Brother and former school principal Paul Hendrick (75) has been jailed for 3½ years in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for sexually abusing a pupil, Kenneth Grace, in the early 1980s.

Grace, like many other victims of historic sexual abuse, is in the process of bringing a civil case against the Christian Brothers.

But he has found his path to justice delayed and frustrated as the religious order adopts a legal strategy that considerably slows the process.

Irish Times reporter Colm Keena investigates the strategy and explores what it means for victims, other religious orders facing historic abuse allegations and the elderly Christian Brothers living in Ireland.