(Image source from: Free Press Journal)

The New York's Catholic church has reached a record USD 27.5 million settlement with four men who said they were sexually abused as children, attorneys said on Tuesday. 

One of the city's boroughs - the Diocese of Brooklyn, agreed to make the payments to the four, who were sexually abused by their religion teacher between 2003 and 2009, their attorneys said.

For each of the victims, the sum breaks down to USD 6.87 million, who were between the ages of eight and 12 at the time. 

"This is the largest settlement ever involving individual victims," said attorney Ben Rubinowitz. "We are glad to see the church finally being brought to justice. It continued for months and in certain cases for years."

However, church officials did not immediately comment. Rubinowitz said, but the settlement ends the civil complaint of the four victims, which was to lead to a trial in early 2019.

The complaint was filed earlier in 2012. It came after Angelo Serrano, a religion teacher - now 67 years old - was arrested in 2009 for assaulting a child, for which he pleaded guilty in 2011 and was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment. 

According to Rubinowitz, the diocese agreed to pay after trying to distance itself from Serrano, who was employed by the little parish of St Lucy-St Patrick, but not a priest. 

A church priest, also targeted by the complaint, admitted to having seen Serrano one day kiss a child on the mouth, but never addressed the abuse, said another of the lawyers Peter Saghir. "They decided that, rather than risk a trial, that it was time for them to make a payment."

According to the website BishopAccountability.org, the previous record for an individual compensation was USD 3.4 million and was paid to the two victims of Matthew Maiello of New York.

The settlement news came as several states of United States, disquieted by a report in August detailing decades of sexual abuse involving over 300 Catholic priests in Pennsylvania, are looking into historic abuse cases in their own jurisdictions. 

Related content: Ex-Pennsylvania Bishop Denies Misconduct Allegation

The Church was also rocked by the resignation in July of the U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, an influential ex-bishop of Washington. He was accused in the early 1970s of sexually abusing a teenager while working as a priest in New York.

By Sowmya Sangam