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  Latest Abuse Suit Names Former Salisbury Priest

By Sean O'Sullivan
News Journal
January 7, 2009

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090107/NEWS01/901070361

WILMINGTON -- A former altar boy from the St. Francis de Sales parish in Salisbury, Md., is the latest plaintiff to file an anonymous lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a priest from the Diocese of Wilmington seeking damages. Both the parish and the diocese are named as defendants.

The plaintiff, now 62, alleges that the Rev. Alfred J. Lind, who was named by church officials as a priest who had either admitted or had substantiated allegations against him, sexually assaulted him on numerous occasions starting when he was 13 or 14.

According to attorney Thomas Neuberger, who filed the suit Tuesday in New Castle County Superior Court, Lind took the plaintiff, called "John Loe," and other young boys on trips to Ocean City, Md., and Canada in 1959 or 1960 where he abused them. Some of the abuse occurred when the group was passing through Delaware, according to the suit.

When the boys confronted Lind, according to Neuberger, he "laughed in their faces stating, 'No one will ever believe you.' "

According to the lawsuit, Lind retired from the priesthood, after a short tenure, in 1966.

The plaintiff claims to have suffered lifelong difficulty as a result of the alleged assaults.

Diocese of Wilmington spokesman Robert Krebs declined comment, as is their custom regarding such lawsuits.

This is the 27th lawsuit filed by Neuberger against the diocese under the Delaware Child Victim's Act of 2007, which opened a two-year window for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file such lawsuits. That suspension of the statute of limitations expires July 9.

 
 

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