Payout for victims of church minister

VICTIMS of a former Lutheran minister who sexually molested boys won a jury award of nearly $40 million, bringing the total payout in the case to about $70m.

The case involving former minister Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr is the most serious to hit the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which has about five million members.

In addition to yesterday’s verdict in Marshall, Texas, a lawyer for the plaintiffs disclosed that separate settlements reached before the trial totalled $30m.