A New York man has received an $8 million (£6 million) settlement from the Diocese of Albany over claims he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest as a child.
The payment was made to Michael Harmon ahead of a jury trial scheduled for 20th October, according to the law firm LaFave, Wein, Frament & Karic, which represented him. The firm said Harmon was abused beginning at the age of 11 and that the abuse continued for several years, bishopaccountability.org reports.
The alleged abuser was named as Father Edward Charles Pratt, who at the time served as vice-chancellor of the Albany diocese. Pratt is included on the diocese’s list of clergy “credibly accused” of sexual abuse, and he was removed from ministry in 2002.
Solicitor Cynthia LaFave described the settlement as “substantial” but stressed that it “does not erase the trauma that Michael Harmon endured”.
“Michael will live with this for all of his life,” she said. “But Michael does know that this settlement brings out to the public this horrible abuse and the people who allowed it.”
Harmon’s case was filed under New York’s Child Victims Act (2019), which suspended the statute of limitations to allow survivors of childhood sexual abuse to pursue legal action.
The settlement comes amid a wave of similar cases across New York. In July, hundreds of abuse survivors accepted a $246 million (£185 million) settlement from the Diocese of Rochester, one of the largest pay-outs to date by a US Catholic diocese.
