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The Arch­dio­cese of Port of Spain has ac­knowl­edged a Guardian Me­dia re­port re­gard­ing a law­suit filed by five men against St Do­minic’s Chil­dren’s Home and the State.

The men al­lege they suf­fered sex­u­al and phys­i­cal abuse at the Bel­mont home decades ago. In their law­suit, filed on Oc­to­ber 8, they are su­ing the Ro­man Catholic Arch­dio­cese, the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, the Statu­to­ry Au­thor­i­ties Ser­vice Com­mis­sion, and a for­mer em­ploy­ee of the chil­dren’s home who was lat­er charged with bug­gery, at­tempt­ed bug­gery, and se­ri­ous in­de­cen­cy.

In a brief state­ment, the Arch­dio­cese said mat­ters of this na­ture re­quire the ut­most sen­si­tiv­i­ty. It added that, as the is­sue is cur­rent­ly be­fore the courts, it can­not of­fer fur­ther com­ment at this time, but ex­pressed con­fi­dence in the ju­di­cial process to bring clar­i­ty and jus­tice.