A woman who Big Brother fans might recognize as a contestant on an earlier season of the unscripted television competition has spoken out as a victim of New Orleans’ decades-old Catholic clergy abuse scandal.
Renny Martyn, 71, told her story toward the end of a Tuesday hearing in the federal courthouse where the Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans has been in bankruptcy protection proceedings since 2020 amid the financial fallout of the scandal.
Martyn waited for hours before recounting in court that she had been molested when she was six years old by a priest at the St Mary Magdalen elementary school in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, Louisiana.
She was among 20 or so clergy abuse claimants who testified on Tuesday during a trial over the fairness of a proposal by the archdiocese to pay roughly $230m to hundreds of clerical molestation survivors involved in the bankruptcy.
“I have been scarred emotionally, physically and psychologically for a lifetime,” Martyn said in a prepared statement referring to the late clergyman Hubert Broussard. “I would never know what it would be like to be a child, teenager, adult – and walk unscarred by the injustice of this horrific act through life.”
Her testimony illustrated how many of the more than 300 clerical abusers named in claims filed as part of the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case aren’t considered by the church to be credibly accused. As of Tuesday, Broussard was not included in a list of about 80 credibly accused clergymen that the archdiocese initially released in 2018 and subsequently revised several times.
Martyn, whose legal first name is Lorenza, competed in Big Brother’s 10th season in the US in 2008, according to an online encyclopedia dedicated to the show.
In court, she explained that she was only in first grade when she encountered her abuser while on the way to a bathroom break. The clergyman lured her to a store room under the guise of an eye exam that Martyn believed was vital to her health.
He then sexually attacked her and sent her back to class, where she was scolded by the teacher for – as the educator put it – taking too long in the bathroom.
Martyn said she came forward about her abuse after realizing how many others had been similarly preyed on by clergy in her community. And though she had initially kept her abuse private, Martyn added that all this time she knew “I’m not going to let this one time – even though I was a child – define who I am.”
One of Martyn’s pursuits when she was older was vying for a $500,000 top prize on Big Brother. She gained notice at the time as the oldest female competitor on the show – which isolates 13 people in a house – before going on to score a top five finish.
Martyn delighted viewers from the state of Alabama by frequently wearing Auburn University gear on screen, which was a gesture of love for her son, who was once a backup punter for the school’s football team.
She also earned a reputation among New Orleanians as the longtime owner of a hair salon. And, in the late 1970s, Martyn performed for the New Orleans Saints’ dance team, known at the time as the Saintsations.
More recently, the married mother and grandmother has worked as a realtor for a major New Orleans brokerage firm.
Martyn on Tuesday did not name her abuser while testifying in court. But her legal team identified him as Broussard, who was reportedly a veteran of the second world war – like Martyn’s father – prior to his ordination in 1952.
Broussard’s 2012 obituary says he was an administrator at St Mary Magdalen in Metairie relatively early in his career before taking temporary sick leave under unspecified circumstances, returning as an assistant, and then moving on to other assignments.
Martyn on Tuesday made it a point to praise other clergy abuse survivors who testified. “It takes courage to come up here,” she said to bankruptcy court judge Meredith Grabill.
Grabill replied: “Ms Martyn, you’re a very brave woman, and I know you waited a long time today.”
Among those who listened to Martyn’s testimony was New Orleans’ archbishop since 2009, Gregory Aymond.
Outside court on Tuesday, Martyn told Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana that for her it felt “liberating” to speak publicly for the first time about her attack at the hands of Broussard.
“I’ve held this in my whole life,” Martyn remarked. “And [now], I feel so good.”
The New Orleans archdiocese’s proposed bankruptcy settlement has been endorsed by survivors and others owed by the church. It was awaiting – and widely expected to receive – approval from Grabill when the trial over its fairness concluded on Tuesday evening.
• In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
