Emma M. Hetherington, assistant clinical professor and director of the Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic, University of Georgia School of Law. (Courtesy photo)

The Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) Clinic at the University of Georgia School of Law is hosting the lead prosecutor of crimes against children by clergy in Pennsylvania for a lecture next month.

Pennsylvania Senior Deputy Attorney General Daniel Dye led the investigation into child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church that identified hundreds of priests accused of abusing children. Dye will speak at 3 p.m. March 25 in the Hatton Lovejoy Courtroom of the UGA law school's Hirsch Hall. Dye's topic is “Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: The Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report,” according to the flyer for the event posted on social media.

The clinic opened in 2015 to help lawyers and survivors file lawsuits within the statute of limitations period created by Georgia's Hidden Predator Act. It was the first such program of its kind in the country and has since become a contact point for those seeking to provide the same kind of help, according to Emma Hetherington, the clinic's director and an assistant clinical professor at the law school.

“We want to be a place where attorneys and survivors from all over the country can come for advice,” Hetherington said.

The clinic now has a staff attorney, former prosecutor Jean Mangan. Part of the mission is to teach lawyers to be “trauma-informed” so that they can take a more holistic approach to helping their clients.

The clinic's founder is Marlan Wilbanks of Wilbanks & Gouinlock in Atlanta. Wilbanks is a longtime advocate for preventing child sexual abuse and helping survivors, because his mother is a survivor, he told the Daily Report. He said she was able to disclose her abuse only when she was well into adulthood, in her late 40s, which is the typical pattern.

Since the groundbreaking Pennsylvania investigation—which was followed by more like it in other states—Dye has continued to prosecute sex crimes, child abuse, homicide and cases of public interest, according to the law school's flyer for the March lecture. Previously, he worked as an assistant district attorney in the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office. He prosecuted sexual assault, child abuse and domestic violence as a member of the special victims unit.

Dye also is the director of the AG's Medical and Legal Advisory Board on Child Abuse, which provides advisory expert analysis to local investigators in difficult-to-solve child abuse or child homicide investigations.

The event is free and open to the public. Registration is requested on the UGA website.