Lawsuit filed in Tampa documents child sex abuse case at defunct Catholic school | Tampa Bay Times

A decade after a Catholic school closed its doors, a former student who says he was sexually abused by a teacher on multiple occasions in the 1970s is suing the organization that ran Mary Help of Christians School.

Although Brother John Casula died in 1994, the lawsuit names the Salesians of Don Bosco, a Catholic order dedicated to helping disadvantaged children. It is the latest lawsuit against the now-defunct 140-acre boarding school documenting child sexual abuse by priests and brothers of the order.

"Each person that comes forward brings forth a little more of the truth, which serves to protect children in the future," said Joseph Saunders, a Pinellas Park attorney representing the man in the latest case, filed Tuesday in Hillsborough Circuit Court.
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The man didn't speak about what happened to anyone until last year, when he saw a newspaper article about another sex abuse case at Mary Help. He contacted Saunders and told his story for the first time.

"I didn't have anyone to go to. I couldn't go to my family. I didn't have a father figure," he said. "I could not go to my mother because whatever the church said, or a brother or a priest said, that was it."

Lawsuit filed in Tampa documents child sex abuse case at defunct Catholic school | Tampa Bay Times

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