Sisters to sue church over sex abuse claims

THREE sisters now in their 30s and 40s are suing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, a parish and a priest who they said sexually abused them as children in the 1970s.

Jackie Dennis, Riva Kennedy and Wendy Kennedy said they took the case to civil court because of a US Supreme Court ruling that overturned a state law that lifted the statute of limitations in criminal prosecution of old molestation cases.

The sisters claim parish priest George Neville Rucker molested all of them at different times, sometimes in their own home while their mother was cooking dinner for the priest. Only recently, they said, did they discover they were all victims.

“Over a year ago, when I first discovered Rucker’s face in the newspaper, I was totally unaware these abuses had happened to my sisters,” said Ms Dennis, 42.

“I kept my secret. I lived with my secret totally unaware of the abuses on my sisters.”

Rucker, 83, was arrested on a cruise ship off Alaska last year and was charged with molesting 12 girls over a 30-year period.

But in July, after the Supreme Court ruling, the charges against Rucker were dismissed and he returned to his home in a facility for retired priests.