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Church Sex Abuse Lawyer Louisiana - Church Sexual Abuse Lawyer Louisiana
Were you sexually abused as a child by a priest, deacon or any other member of the Catholic Church? You are not alone. We are here to help abuse victims. Stand up against your abuser and help prevent this from happening to someone else. Please fill out our confidential online contact form or call Toll Free 1-866-777-2557 and a Louisiana Sex Abuse Lawyer will get back to you within 24 hours to discuss your possible case. This is a free consultation. There is no cost to investigate and there are no legal fees unless you receive financial compensation at the end of the case. Making the call is sometimes the hardest step, but it is often a necessary step on the road to healing. Church Sex Abuse Lawyer Louisiana
Reasons to call
- Hold the church and priests accountable
- Prevent this from happening to someone else
- Help with the road to recovery – settlement money can provide financial security for you. It can also help pay for therapy, rehabilitation, and medical treatment
Please call Toll Free 1-866-777-2557 or fill out our confidential contact form and a lawyer will get back to you within 24 hours to discuss your case.
Church Sex Abuse Lawyer Louisiana
Louisiana is chalk full of devout catholics, but one would be hard pressed to find a more catholic community than that of Lafayette. Locals believe (or at least used to believe) that priests are revered leaders. Sad to say, this kind of reverence for the church and priests permitted deviants like the Reverend Gilbert Gauthe to victimize young boys and sexually abuse them. The Gauthe case is one of the originals and served as the catalyst for unveiling decades of abuse and coverups.
Church Sex Abuse Lawyer Louisiana
Once Gauthe first arrived in the area in the 1970s, moms and dads didn’t think to question his involvement with kids. They thought that he was acting in good faith as a leader and mentor and who would see after their children’s spiritual upbringing. Nevertheless, there have been crystal-clear indicators that something wasn’t quite right; like having slumber parties at the rectory. Over the coming decade, he went on to target and use boys and the Bishop Harry Flynn did nothing about original complaints from children. At some point, after more allegations were created, Gauthe was moved to Henry, Louisiana, where he was basically presented with a whole new church of victims from which to choose.
Church Sex Abuse Lawyer Louisiana
In 1983, a young child told his dad about what Gauthe had been up to and Gauthe was sent away for psychological treatment. The church made an effort to keep the story quiet by offering settlements to the families in question. Many accepted the money and kept quiet. However, one family declined to accept the hush money and went public with the case. Sooner or later, Gauthe admitted to abusing in excess of 300 kids and then he was sentenced to 20 years in jail. I wish I could say the scandal stopped there.
As soon as communities around Louisiana concluded that the Catholic church had intentionally covered up Gauthe’s abuse and allowed him to carry on to serve, they began to question just how prevalent the issue had been and whether other abusers have been handled with the same treatment. Files are still being found that demonstrate that the church had relocated priests to other parishes when molestation allegations occurred. In the beginning, Harry Flynn was applauded for his actions in the Gauthe case, but his deceptive methods that permitted abuse to carry on were at some point totally exposed.
Church Sexual Abuse Lawyers Louisiana
Even today, the Catholic sex abuse scandal continues to unravel and the Vatican is struggling with how to acknowledge and compensate victims while also handling a systemic problem which goes all the way to the top. Regretfully enough, the Gilbert Gauthe case was simply the first of many revelations that rocked the Catholic church and shook the faith of even the most devout followers.