THE Mormon Church in Ireland is being sued for damages by a young woman who claims its members tried to cover up that she was repeatedly sexually abused by one of the church’s elders.
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has also brought proceedings against her alleged abuser.
She claims she suffered loss and damage due to alleged sexual abuse, assault, and false imprisonment committed by the man.
She is suing the church for alleged fraudulent concealment and for allowing the man to have unsupervised contact with her, as well as exposing her to risk of injury and allowing her to be exploited.
She claims the church disregarded its own guidelines and advice that female elders were to accompany young female members at all times and failed to take adequate steps to investigate her claims.
The man has since left Ireland. The court heard that due to data protection laws the church was unable to provide the girl’s lawyers with his address.
However, lawyers have ascertained his home address through private investigators and obtained an order from the High Court to serve the man with the girl’s proceedings at this address.
In her claim, the young woman alleges the abuse began in 2007 at locations outside Dublin where the man served as a missionary. She says that initially the man began with inappropriate touching before advancing to more serious forms of abuse, including oral sex.
She says that on one occasion, after the man forcibly restrained and sexually abused her, another church elder acted as a sentry.
She claims that after she asked her alleged abuser to stop he replied that "while it was sin for others to act like this" it was not for him as he "was worthy and had been chosen by God".
He also tried to convince the girl that everything he did "had manifested through the holy spirit".
When she told senior church members of the claims she alleges they told her not to reveal this to her parents or the gardaí.
The girl claims she started to self harm, suffered sleep deprivation and an eating disorder, spent time in hospital and had attended counselling as a result of what happened to her.
According to her statement of claim she has spoken to gardaí and her parents about what she says happened took place, but has not made a formal complaint.
She claims she suffered loss and damage due to alleged sexual abuse, assault, and false imprisonment committed by the man.
She is suing the church for alleged fraudulent concealment and for allowing the man to have unsupervised contact with her, as well as exposing her to risk of injury and allowing her to be exploited.
She claims the church disregarded its own guidelines and advice that female elders were to accompany young female members at all times and failed to take adequate steps to investigate her claims.
The man has since left Ireland. The court heard that due to data protection laws the church was unable to provide the girl’s lawyers with his address.
However, lawyers have ascertained his home address through private investigators and obtained an order from the High Court to serve the man with the girl’s proceedings at this address.
In her claim, the young woman alleges the abuse began in 2007 at locations outside Dublin where the man served as a missionary. She says that initially the man began with inappropriate touching before advancing to more serious forms of abuse, including oral sex.
She says that on one occasion, after the man forcibly restrained and sexually abused her, another church elder acted as a sentry.
She claims that after she asked her alleged abuser to stop he replied that "while it was sin for others to act like this" it was not for him as he "was worthy and had been chosen by God".
He also tried to convince the girl that everything he did "had manifested through the holy spirit".
When she told senior church members of the claims she alleges they told her not to reveal this to her parents or the gardaí.
The girl claims she started to self harm, suffered sleep deprivation and an eating disorder, spent time in hospital and had attended counselling as a result of what happened to her.
According to her statement of claim she has spoken to gardaí and her parents about what she says happened took place, but has not made a formal complaint.
She intends to do this as soon as she fells well enough.