Bills would give more time to sue over sex abuse

RICHMOND, Va. — Becky Ianni said she was 9 years old when her popular priest began fondling her.

After two years of abuse in her home and her church, Ianni said she pushed the memories so far back she didn't think about it again until she came across a picture of herself with the priest nearly four decades later.

By that time, the priest had killed himself when confronted by abuse allegations from another person. When Ianni was finally able to come forward, Virginia's two-year statute of limitations on filing civil lawsuits in such cases had expired.

Bills before the Virginia General Assembly would extend the time people have to file claims of sexual abuse against accused attackers and others responsible. Both proposals originally extended the statute of limitations from two years to 25 years.

The House bill was scaled back to eight years at the urging of the Virginia Catholic Conference. The Senate proposal was changed to 20 years late Thursday.

Holding a picture of that red-haired, freckle-faced girl she used to be, Ianni and other victims of child sexual abuse called Thursday on legislators to set the limit at no less than 15 years.

The time period begins either from the act, from when the accuser turns 18 or, in cases where the memories are suppressed, when the accuser realizes he or she was abused.

Ianni and others argued that extending the time limit will encourage those suffering in silence to come forward, expose their attackers and help protect other children from abuse.

"Eight years is not a reasonable period of time considering that victims of sexual abuse carry their wounds for a lifetime — a lifetime already shortened by the theft of their childhood," said Mark McAllister of Vinton, who said he too was abused by a priest.

McAllister said his weekly and sometimes daily abuse began when he was 13.

"I was drugged, sodomized, beaten and perhaps worst of all, brainwashed into thinking I was a willing participant in what he referred to as a normal and consensual relationship," he said.

McAllister said he also suppressed the memories for years, struggling with depression and substance abuse. At 37, around the time his son was born, he began to remember what had happened to him.

The accused priest, it turns out, had pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a minor in New Jersey a year earlier and changed his name before moving to McAllister's Missouri parish in 1983.