Our client was fifteen, a pupil at a secondary school run by a religious institution, when they were sexually abused by someone the school was responsible for. Like any child at school, they should have been safe there. This school sexual abuse claim was brought against the religious institution and was resolved in June 2026 with a partial admission of liability. The settlement, a six-figure sum, is confidential.

Our client was fifteen years old at the time of the abuse, attending a secondary school run by a religious institution, in a setting where they and their family had every reason to believe they would be kept safe.

Our client was sexually abused as a child while a pupil at the school, for which the religious institution was responsible. The harm did not end when the abuse did. It stayed with them into adult life, affecting them psychologically and reaching into their finances and working lives. The claim was brought to address both the psychological injury and the financial loss.

How the claim was investigated

Philip Treacy brought the claim against the religious institution on the basis of its responsibility for what happened to a child in its school. Civil claims of this kind are pursued directly through the courts rather than through the Injuries Resolution Board, because they arise from assault and trespass to the person rather than an ordinary personal injuries action.

Two independent experts were instructed: a doctor to set out the nature and extent of the psychological harm, and a vocational assessor to show how the abuse had affected our client’s working life and earning capacity, so that the financial consequences were presented as part of the claim rather than treated as separate from it.

The outcome

The school sexual abuse claim was resolved in June 2026 by way of a six-figure settlement, with a partial admission of liability by the religious institution. The amount is confidential and is not published. Just as importantly, it was resolved without our client having to give evidence at a contested hearing.

How Coleman Legal helped

Philip Treacy handled this case from the first consultation through to settlement. He gathered the evidence, instructed the doctor and vocational assessor whose reports set out both the psychological and the financial consequences, and dealt with the religious institution so that our client did not have to. For someone who has carried something like this for years, being listened to and believed matters as much as the outcome.