National Post
Postmedia News Dec 8, 2011 – 6:32 PM ET
WINDSOR, Ont. — Two sexual assault victims of convicted pedophile Fr. William Hodgson Marshall, who earned the nickname Happy Hands in the 1950s for his tendency to touch students, launched separate $3-million lawsuits Thursday against the Basilian priest.
The civil suit by Patrick McMahon, 43, also names the Basilian Fathers of Toronto and Catholic Bishop Ronald Fabbro, alleging neither did anything to prevent Marshall from abusing children.
The suit by Jerry Boyle, 71, also names the Basilian Fathers and Fabbro, as well as the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of London.
Marshall, now 88, was sentenced June 9 in a Windsor court to two years in prison for molesting children. He pleaded guilty to 17 counts of indecent assault between 1952 and 1985 in Windsor, Sudbury and Toronto where the Basilian taught.
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