By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
Even though New Hampshire removed the statute of limitations to allow victims of sexual abuse to bring lawsuits decades later, the old limits still apply to a man trying to sue the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester.
The man claims he was sexually abused in the 1970s by Fr. Karl Dowd, the Catholic priest in charge of the diocesan summer camps Camp Fatima and Camp Bernadette. But, in a September ruling, Belknap Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Leonard tossed out the lawsuit when she agreed with diocesan lawyers that the old limits should apply.
New Hampshire’s legislature removed the statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims in 2020, and the alleged victim filed his lawsuit in 2023. Under the old law, the man would have had to file his claim in 1986, when he was 20 years old. The alleged abuse took place in the mid 1970s.
According to Leonard’s dismissal, the 2020 law change to remove the statute of limitations cannot be applied retroactively, as the New Hampshire Constitution prohibits retroactive enforcement.
“The prohibition against retrospective application of laws under Article 23 of the New Hampshire Constitution must be respected in this case because “[r]etrospective laws are highly injurious, oppressive, and unjust” in every case,” Leonard wrote.
The diocese did not provide comment when contacted on Thursday.
Dowd was promoted by the diocese in 1971 to be the camp director, despite a prior sexual assault complaint at St. Bernard Parish in Keene where Dowd was accused of abusing a 16-year-old boy.
Dowd’s leadership at Camp Fatima saw the summer camp become an abyss of child sex abuse, according to court records, with multiple priests and religious staffers raping the boys.
“Several other boys who attended Camp Fatima alleged that Dowd sexually abused them, including one man who alleged he was abused more than 100 times before 1975. Id. The abuse was so pervasive at the Camp that one former camper stated, ‘it was nothing to see somebody take a little kid, go into a cabin, [and] close all the shutters,’” court records state.
The alleged victim claims he was first assaulted by Dowd when other staffers directed the boy to hide in a particular cabin. The camp staffers were playing a game known as “strip the campers,” in which the boys were chased and forcibly stripped if caught by the staff. The victim was told he could avoid being stripped by going into the cabin, according to court records.
The alleged victim went into the cabin alone, and saw it was furnished with a bed. Dowd soon entered, joined him on the bed, and allegedly began his assault.
“Dowd proceeded to sexually assault the plaintiff while telling him that ‘God loved him and wanted him there, and so did Dowd,’” according to court records.
Dowd was the camp director until 1990. Dowd’s notorious abuse wasn’t known to the public until after he died in 2002 when several former campers came forward. But the victim alleges the diocese knew that Dowd sexually assaulted children.
Several former campers filed a class action lawsuit against the diocese in 2002, months after Dowd died while on vacation in Florida. That lawsuit was later settled out of court.
