Four of Angelo Serrano’s (pictured) child sex abuse victims were granted $27.5million by the Diocese of Brooklyn on Tuesday
Four men who were victim to horrific child sex abuse by their Catholic religion teacher have been awarded a hefty $27.5million settlement by the Diocese of Brooklyn.
The diocese agreed Tuesday to the pay each unnamed victims, who were lured into sleepovers and repeatedly raped by their religion teacher, Angelo Serrano, 67, when they were aged 8 through 12 between 2003 and 2009, a total of $6,875,000.
Serrano had been working as a religion teacher for St. Lucy’s-St. Patrick’s Church in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn at the time he abused the young male students.
The abuse took place inside the church, a nearby school building and Serrano’s home.
Serrano was finally arrested for the sex crimes in September 2009 after one boys mother reported him to police.
In 2011, he pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual conduct.
He is now serving a 15-year prison sentence at the Fishkill Correctional Facility, a multi-security level prison located in Beacon.
The diocese agreed Tuesday to the pay each unidentified victims $6,875,000
Serrano had been working as a religion teacher for St. Lucy’s-St. Patrick’s Church in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn at the time he abused his young male students
Reverend Frank Shannon and the Reverend Stephen P. Lynch were co-defendants in the sex abuse case.
Kings County Supreme Court Justice Loren Baily-Schiffman wrote in a court statement: ‘The record is clear that Lynch and Shannon, had knowledge for years that Serrano often had several boys, including plaintiff, sleep over at his apartment.’
An attorney for one of the victims, Ben Rubinowitz, said ‘the egregious nature of the conduct is the reason that the church paid what they did’
President of BishopAccountability.org, Terry McKiernan, told The New York Times that the settlement amount is astounding and speaks volumes about the cruelty of the case.
‘This is an extremely large settlement, and the size of the settlement has to be an indication of the severity of the abuse and also of the pressure that the Catholic Church is under,’ McKiernan said.
Bishop Accountability keeps track of sex abuse cases within the Roman Catholic Church.
An attorney for one of the victims, Ben Rubinowitz, said in a statement seen on The Times: ‘The egregious nature of the conduct is the reason that the church paid what they did.
‘These were boys who were abused in second grade through sixth grade, for years for some of them.’
The Tuesday settlement comes two weeks after the state of New York and New Jersey launched an investigation into the handling of clergy sex abuse claims.