LOUISVILLE — Five people filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Roman Catholic dioceses in Lexington and Covington alleging both covered up complaints of sexual abuse.

        The four men and one woman — identified as John Does and Jane Doe — filed the suit in Fayette Circuit Court.

        The suit comes nine days after a Louisville man — James W. Bennett — accused Lexington Bishop J. Kendrick Williams of sexual abuse in a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Louisville. Mr. Bennett claims Bishop Williams abused him in 1981 while he was a priest at a Louisville parish.

        Bishop Williams has denied the allegations. That suit is one of 97 that have been filed against the Louisville archdiocese.

        The plaintiffs in Thursday's suit allege they were sexually abused as children by priests who worked in both the Lexington and Covington dioceses. They claim they were abused while participating in parish activities or events sponsored and approved by diocese officials, according to the suit.

        The plaintiffs claim the dioceses knew about the abuse, but allowed the priests to stay active within their parishes.

        The five plaintiffs said in the suit they will not release their identities because of the “personal and sexual nature” of the abuse.

        Details of the abuse or the names of the accused priests or their parishes do not appear in the lawsuit, “in order to spare further harm to the plaintiffs, and other plaintiffs who may come forward,” according to the suit.

        Officials at the Covington and Lexington dioceses would not comment on the suit Thursday.

        Each plaintiff is seeking no less than $30 million in punitive damages, according to the suit.

        The Diocese of Lexington was established in 1988. Forty-three of the counties were under the control of the Diocese of Covington prior to 1988. The other seven counties were controlled by the Archdiocese of Louisville.

        Tom Shaughnessy, a spokesman for the Lexington diocese, said when the Lexington diocese took control of the 43 counties, it also oversaw the priests in those counties.

        “Wherever you (the priest) were assigned when the (Lexington) diocese was formed, that's where you stayed,” Mr. Shaughnessy said Thursday.

        A message left with the plaintiffs' attorney — Robert L. Treadway of Lexington — was not immediately returned.

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