Catholic Diocese and school in B.C. settle abuse lawsuit for $3.4M

A sexual abuse case that was about to get underway with a 23-day trial in B.C. Supreme Court was settled this week, as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Prince George and Burnaby's St. Thomas More Collegiate agreed to pay the unnamed plaintiff $3.4 million, according to the plaintiff's lawyer. (Peter Scobie/CBC)

CBC

February 11, 2025

By Darryl Greer

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Prince George, B.C., says it hopes a $3.4 million settlement gives an alleged victim of sexual abuse by a school teacher "some degree of restitution for the harm that was so unjustly inflicted upon him by his abuser."

The settlement by the diocese and St. Thomas More Collegiate, a Catholic school in Burnaby, B.C., was announced in a statement released by lawyer Sandra Kovacs, who represented the anonymous man in the lawsuit.

Also named in the lawsuit was former teacher Alfred Patrick Quigley, who the anonymous plaintiff said sexually abused him in the 1990s.

Quigley taught at O'Grady Catholic High School in Prince George, and one of the alleged assaults was said to have occurred at St. Thomas More Collegiate.

Accused of grooming the plaintiff

The lawsuit accused Quigley of grooming the plaintiff before sexually assaulting him in 1993 and 1994. 

Quigley denied the allegations in the lawsuit in his response filed in the court, but he didn't participate in the case as it approached trial, and he couldn't be reached for comment through his former lawyer. 

The allegations were not proven in court, and Quigley, now 75 and believed to be living in Newfoundland, has not been charged criminally in B.C.

"Although neither the Diocese nor the School were aware of the wrongdoing that occurred back in the 1990s, they have recognized and accepted the legal responsibility that arose vicariously due to the acts of its employee in these circumstances," a statement issued by the diocese on Tuesday said.

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