Red Bank Catholic High School Sued over Decades-Old Sex Abuse

A man who says he was a victim of Catholic sex abuse in the 1980s has filed a lawsuit against Red Bank Catholic High School, St. James Church in Red Bank and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton.

Preferring to remain anonymous, the man has been identified only as B.T. He alleges Francis McGrath, now 70, sexually abused him in 1982 and 1983 when B.T. was a teen student at Red Bank Catholic High School.

B.T. alleges the school, church and diocese either knew or should have known that McGrath was a predatory pedophile, yet none of the organizations tried to keep him away from children. Among the six counts levied against the defendants are intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy.

This isn’t the first time McGrath has been accused as a perpetrator linked to the Roman Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal, and McGrath was identified by the Diocese of Trenton as a priest who was credibly accused of sexual abuse, which caused him to be removed from ministry.

In 1978, McGrath allegedly sexually assaulted an altar boy on numerous occasions when the child was only 11 years old. The assaults occurred in McGrath’s car and in the rectory and sacristy of the church, say court documents.

McGrath purportedly molested a 17-year-old boy four times in 1983 when he had the boy visit McGrath’s bedroom at the rectory of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church.

McGrath’s Time at Red Bank Catholic High School

According to Asbury Park Press, McGrath spent 1978 to 1983 at St. James Parish in Red Bank. From there, he was assigned to St. Anthony’s in Trenton from 1983 to 1989, followed by an assignment with St. Justin’s in Toms River from 1989 to 1995.

The Diocese of Trenton indicates McGrath was removed from ministry in 1995 after allegations surfaced that he sexually abused boys in the 1970s while he was a seminarian for the Diocese of Trenton at St. Mary’s Seminary and the University in Baltimore. The Archdiocese of Baltimore said another person came forward in 2002 accusing McGrath sexually abused him in the 1970s, too.

The bishop accountability record of McGrath indicates he admitted to sexually abusing “three or four victims” while he was assigned at Trenton, and after the admission in 1995, he went on leave through 2002, according to the Official Catholic Directory’s records.

New Jersey’s Child Victims Act Allows Old Cases to Move Forward

New Jersey passed a Child Victims Act that went into effect on Dec. 1, 2019, allowing a two-year lookback window for victims of sexual assault to file suit against perpetrators and the institutions that allowed the abuse to occur. New Jersey’s lookback window is unique in that both child and adult sexual assault victims may seek justice during the two-year period even if the statute of limitations had previously run out on their chance to file a case.

Going forward, victims of child sex abuse now have until they turn 55 years old or until seven years have passed from the date the victim recalled or became aware of such a traumatic experience, whichever comes later.

Robert Hoatson is founder and president of Road to Recovery, which is a support organization based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse.

Hoatson talked to a North Jersey reporter back in May 2019 when the new law was passed, and said, the Child Victims Act “offers more victims the option to sue and makes it easier for them to seek damages from the institutions that enabled the abuser.”

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.