I’m starting a scoreboard for clergy sexual abuse allegations. It will show the number of new allegations by denomination per month. The Catholics pick up another allegation with charges that Father Barry Ashwell molested a Whidbey Island resident 30-years-ago.
Seattle attorney Tim Kosnoff is representing the alleged abuse victim, identified in court papers only as “T.C.” Kosnoff said this client is the fifth man that he knows of who came forward and accused Ashwell of sexual abuse that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s.
“I’m sure there are other out there,” he said.
According to the lawsuit, T.C. and his family were members of St. Augustine in the early 1980s. In 1981 or 1982, T.C. met Ashwell at Sunday school and spent the night at the parish with the priest on a number of occasions.
You may remember Ashwell as the accused pedophile priest who took minors into his home to “protect them.”
The Rev. G. Barry Ashwell was a state-licensed foster father to at least five children on Whidbey Island, one of whom accused him of sexual abuse and settled with the Seattle Archdiocese in 1996.
It’s almost like the Catholic church rewarded him with his choice of children. I don’t know how else to describe it.
