SEATTLE — The Seattle Archdiocese has settled six cases of sexual abuse claims over the last two months for nearly $7 million.
Six men, three of whom filed lawsuits, claimed they were sexually abused by Seattle Archdiocese priests when they were children. They will receive $6,975,000.
The alleged abuse happened between the 1960’s and mid 1980’s in Seattle, Tacoma, Burien, and Port Angeles.
The six accused priests were all on a list of priests that the Archdiocese said it has credible allegations of sexually abusing minors, and lawyers for the alleged victims say the cases involved some of the church’s “most prolific abusers.”
Lawsuits claim the Archdiocese knew or should have known that the priests posed a danger to children and didn’t protect them, even though the Archdiocese knew they were at risk.
The settlement follows several other large-sum payments to victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests.
In March, the Seattle Archdiocese and the Franklin Pierce School District settled for $2.5 million after a man claimed Archdiocese officials knew a teacher had sexually abused dozens of schoolchildren when they helped him get a job at Parkland Elementary School in 1980.
In March 2016, the Archdiocese said it would pay over $9 million to eight women who were sexually abused by a former priest in Whatcom and Skagit Counties between 1968 and 1974.
