After a decade-long court fight, the Roman Catholic Church in St. John's has been found liable for the sexual abuse of eight altar boys in the late 1970s by Rev. James Hickey, now deceased.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court's trial division made the ruling against the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John's on Monday.

Hickey was charged in 1989 with molesting the boys from Rushoon-Parker's Cove while he was parish priest on the Burin Peninsula. He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. He died in 1992.

"It damaged [the boys] emotionally. The rest of their life is off the rails, if you like," lawyer Greg Stack, who represented the eight men in the case, said Monday.

"Normal sexual relationships with partners [have] been affected," said Stack.

'Victimized by their parish'

He said Hickey took more than just their innocence. He destroyed their faith.

"The boys, who were the altar boys in these parishes, generally came from the more devout Catholic homes. The more devout, the more religious parents that pushed their children to become altar boys, and these were the boys who were victimized by their parish priest.

"So it is the whole coupling of that — the sense that God has abused them. And that's what they believed in those small communities. By and large, the parish priest was a God-like figure."

Stack said Monday's victory is important.

"This is a really good point to be at. If the Church doesn't soon come around with an acceptable [compensation] figure, then we can go and get an interim application and get an interim payment … and have a full assessment done. Hopefully we won't have to go through that exercise, but we are prepared to," Stack said.

Stack said there are about 12 other cases involving four or five more priests.

It was the Hickey case that prompted charges against other priests, including several members of the Irish Christian Brothers running the Mount Cashel orphanage.

Scandal breaks open

There were also allegations that previous investigations, beginning in 1975, had been covered up, and the offenders whisked away to other provinces, where they received treatment and soon took on new religious postings.

Eventually, the Newfoundland government established a royal commission to investigate the allegations. The publicity also led to other investigations into sexual abuse in institutions across Canada.

By March 1989, police had laid 77 charges against the eight members of the Irish Congregation of Christian Brothers who were implicated in the earlier investigation. They also charged a ninth man for more recent offences, and laid 17 charges against three civilians.

Nine Christian Brothers were eventually convicted and sentenced to between one and 13 years in prison.