Still Running Off at the Keyboard

CONCORD, California (AP) - A Roman Catholic religious order has agreed to pay US$6.3 m to settle lawsuits brought by three former students who were sexually abused by counsellors and teachers at an elite private school in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The largest of the three settlements, at US$4 m would be one of the biggest in California for a plaintiff in a clergy sexual abuse case, attorneys and victims advocates said Friday.

The abuse occurred when the plaintiffs, now in their 30s and 40s, attended the Concord school operated by the Christian Brothers religious order.