UK cardinal to be sued by abuse victim

A former trainee priest is to take legal action against Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, over a new allegation of abuse dating back to the 1980s.

The ex-seminarian said he decided to speak out after the recent spate of allegations surrounding the cardinal in recent weeks, The Herald Scotland reported.

He said the clergyman sexually abused him during a visit to an unnamed seminary about 30 years ago when he was 19.

The victim’s solicitor, Cameron Fyfe, said, “I have been instructed to make a claim for compensation against Keith O’Brien and his Archdiocese on the basis of abuse my client suffered at his hands in the 1980s while at seminary.”

O’Brien admitted to sexual misconduct during his career as a priest, archbishop, and cardinal and stepped down from his post as archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh in February.

The scandal came into limelight after the British paper the Observer revealed that three priests and a former priest in Scotland had complained to Vatican’s ambassador to Britain, nuncio Antonio Mennini, about allegations of O’Brien’s inappropriate behavior against them about 30 years ago.