A MAN has failed in a bid to sue disgraced cardinal Keith O'Brien over alleged sex abuse by a parish priest.
The 33-year-old from Bathgate, West Lothian, claims he was given money and rosary beads to keep quiet.
The priest he blames for molesting him between 1989 and 1992 has since died.
The man went to the Court of Session in Edinburgh seeking £100,000 damages.
In papers submitted to the court his lawyers tried to argue that Cardinal O'Brien and other senior figures in the Catholic Church in Scotland should legally carry the blame.
The churchmen named in the action are the trustees of the Archdiosese of St Andrews and Edinburgh.
The man said they were responsible for the work of his former parish priest, who was also linked to the primary school and secondary school he attended.
But judge Paul Arthurson QC was told that the man had left it too late before raising his court action.
In normal circumstances there is a three-year dead-line and the clock starts running either at the time of the incident or when the person trying to sue reaches the age of 16.
Lawyers for the churchmen argued that there were no special reasons why the man should not have begun his legal moves sooner.
The man claimed that as a result of what happened to him he lost interest in education and left school with no qualifications.
But Judge Arthurson ruled that the 33-year-old man's claims could not avoid the three-year time bar.
Earlier this year Cardinal O'Brien quit his role as leader of Scotland's Catholic community after confessing to inappropriate behaviour. The scandal followed newspaper revelations.
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