INJUSTICE
Cardinal Pell freed after winning appeal over child sex abuse

AFP / William WESTCardinal George Pell leaves Barwon Prison near Anakie, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of Melbourne

Cardinal George Pell was released from prison Tuesday, hours after Australia's High Court quashed his conviction for child sex abuse, bringing an end to the most high-profile paedophilia case faced by the Catholic Church.

The 78-year-old left Barwon Prison near Melbourne after the court overturned five counts of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in the 1990s.

Pell, who maintained his innocence throughout a lengthy court process, left the jail where he has been held for the last year and issued a statement saying a "serious injustice" had been remedied.

Hours later, without referencing Pell, Pope Francis decried "unjust" sentences against "innocent" people.

"In these days of Lent, we've been witnessing the persecution that Jesus underwent and how He was judged ferociously, even though He was innocent," the pope said on Twitter.

"Let us pray together today for all those persons who suffer due to an unjust sentence because someone had it in for them."

A jury convicted Pell in December 2018, a decision upheld by a three-judge Court of Appeal panel last August in a split verdict.

But Australia's High Court found there was "a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof".

The seven justices unanimously found a lower court had "failed to engage with the question of whether there remained a reasonable possibility that the offending had not taken place".

AFP / William WEST
Pell was taken to a Carmelite monastery in Melbourne after
 his release from Barwon Prison


Pell's legal woes, however, may not be at an end, as he faces possible civil action, including from the father of one of the alleged victims -- now deceased -- who is planning to launch a claim for damages.

The prosecution's case had relied heavily on the testimony of Pell's surviving accuser, who told a closed-door hearing that Pell had sexually assaulted the two boys in a Melbourne cathedral while he was archbishop of the city.

- 'Utter disbelief' -

The second choirboy -- who is not known to have ever spoken of the abuse -- died of a drug overdose in 2014. Neither man can be identified for legal reasons.

Lisa Flynn, the lawyer for the deceased man's father, said her client was "disgusted" and "in utter disbelief" at the outcome.
AFP / Janis LATVELSAustralian Cardinal

"He is struggling to comprehend the decision by the High Court of Australia. He says he no longer has faith in our country's criminal justice system," she said.

"He is furious the man he believes is responsible for sexually abusing his son was convicted by a unanimous jury only to have that decision overturned today."

The Blue Knot Foundation, a victim support group, said the decision would be "crushing" for survivors of abuse.

"The child sexual abuse pandemic within the Catholic Church has threatened the safety of millions of children, the adults they become and the very moral fibre of what it means to be human," said Blue Knot president Cathy Kezelman.

In his statement, Pell thanked his lawyers, supporters and family and said he held "no ill will" toward his accuser.

"I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough," he said.

AFP / William WEST
Social distancing because of the coronavirus kept media crews apart outside Barwon Prison where Cardinal Pell was held


"However my trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church; nor a referendum on how Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of paedophilia in the Church.

"The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not."

Local media footage showed Pell being driven from prison to a Carmelite monastery in suburban Melbourne.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said even the "discussion of these topics brings back great hurt" for victims, and his thoughts were "always with them".

"But the High Court, the highest court in the land, has made its decision and that must be respected," he said.

Coronavirus restrictions meant the verdict was delivered to a near-empty Brisbane courtroom -- in stark contrast to earlier hearings that drew large crowds of his supporters and detractors, the world's media and members of the legal profession.

Pell's lawyers had argued there were "compounding improbabilities" in the case, including that Pell would not have had the time or opportunity to molest the boys in the sacristy after Mass, when he would usually be on the cathedral steps greeting members of the congregation.

Pell's trial was held under a court-ordered veil of secrecy, but at the same time he was quietly removed from top Church bodies -- although the Vatican resisted launching an internal investigation.

The former Vatican treasurer remains in the priesthood, but his future role in the church remains unclear.

Also unknown is whether the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will continue its own investigation into the charges made against PelHome

Cardinal Pell accuser 'accepts' acquittal

A former choirboy who accused Australian Cardinal George Pell of molesting him said Wednesday he accepts the top Vatican cleric's acquittal, but urged survivors of child sex abuse to keep coming forward.

A day after Australia's top court quashed Pell's conviction and released him from jail, "Witness J" said he understood and accepted the court's verdict.

"There are a lot of checks and balances in the criminal justice system," the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said in a statement issued by his lawyer. "I respect the decision of the High Court. I accept the outcome."
AFP / Janis LATVELSAustralian Cardinal


The court found that the jury that convicted the cleric of molesting Witness J and his friend, both 13 years old at the time, should have had a reasonable doubt about his guilt.

"It is difficult in child sexual abuse matters to satisfy a criminal court that the offending has occurred beyond the shadow of a doubt," Witness J said. "It is a very high standard to meet –- a heavy burden."

Regardless, he said: "I would hate to think that one outcome of this case is that people are discouraged from reporting to the police."

"I would like to reassure child sexual abuse survivors that most people recognise the truth when they hear it."

As many activists expressed concern that Pell's case would compound survivors' pain, Witness J also said he was doing "OK" and was relieved the years-long case was over.

"I have my ups and downs. The darkness is never far away. I am OK. I hope that everyone who has followed this case is OK," he said.

"This case does not define me. I am not the abuse I suffered as a child."Crime

Cardinal Pell welcomes court’s dismissal of abuse conviction

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Cardinal George Pell sits in the back seat of a car as he leaves prison in Geelong, Australia Tuesday, April 7, 2020. Pope Francis' former finance minister Pell had been the most senior Catholic found guilty of sexually abusing children and has spent 13 months in high-security prisons before seven High Court judges unanimously dismissed his convictions. (James Ross/AAP Image via AP)CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Cardinal George Pell welcomed Australia’s highest court clearing him of child sex crimes Tuesday and said his trial had not been a referendum on the Catholic Church’s handling of the clergy abuse crisis.Cardinal Pell welcomes court’s dismissal of abuse conviction

Pell, Pope Francis’ former finance minister, had been the most senior Catholic found guilty of sexually abusing children and spent 13 months in prison before seven High Court judges unanimously dismissed his convictions.

“I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice,” Pell said in his first public statement since he was convicted in December 2018. It was released before he left prison and was taken to the Carmelite Monastery in Melbourne, where he was greeted by a nun.

The Vatican welcomed the decision, while saying it reaffirmed its commitment “to pursuing all cases of abuse against minors.”

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Francis appeared to refer to Pell’s acquittal in his morning homily, saying he was praying for all those unjustly persecuted.

Pell said, “I hold no ill will toward my accuser,” a former choirboy whose testimony was at the core of the 78-year-old cleric’s prosecution.

The High Court found there was reasonable doubt surrounding the testimony of the witness, now the father of a young family aged in his 30s, who said Pell had abused him and another 13-year-old choirboy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne in the late 1990s.

“My trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church; nor a referendum on how Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of pedophilia in the Church,” Pell said.

“The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not,” he added.

A judge and lawyers had urged two juries in 2018 to try Pell on the evidence and not on his senior position in the church’s flawed responses to clergy abuse in Australia. The first trial ended in a jury deadlock and the second unanimously convicted him on all charges.

The Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests said in a statement they were “dismayed and heartbroken” by the decision.

Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher called for the ruling to end the pursuit of Pell in the courts.

“I am pleased that the Cardinal will now be released and I ask that the pursuit of him that brought us to this point now cease,” Fisher said in a statement.

“The cardinal’s vindication today invites broader reflection on our system of justice, our commitment to the presumption of innocence, and our treatment of high-profile figures accused of crimes,” Fisher added.

But Pell’s record on managing clergy abuse could come under further public scrutiny, with Australian Attorney General Christian Porter responding to the verdict by announcing he will consider releasing a redacted section of a report on institutional responses to child molesting.

Pell gave evidence by video link from Rome in 2016 to a royal commission, Australia’s highest level of inquiry, about his time as a church leader in Melbourne and his hometown of Ballarat.

Full Coverage: Religion

The royal commission found in its 2017 report that the Melbourne Archdiocese had ignored or covered up allegations of child abuse by seven priests to protect the church’s reputation and avoid scandal.

The royal commission was critical of Pell’s predecessor in Melbourne, Archbishop Frank Little, who died in 2008. It made no findings against Pell, saying then that it would not publish information that could “prejudice current or future criminal or civil proceedings.”

Where Pell will go and whether he will return to Rome has not been announced. Melbourne residents have been told to stay home except for essentials due to the coronavirus pandemic. He had stayed at a Sydney seminary when he was free on bail awaiting trial.

He is no longer a member of Francis’ Council of Cardinals or a Vatican official and will lose his right to vote for the next pope on his 80th birthday next year.

The Vatican has previously said Pell would face a canonical investigation after all his appeals had been exhausted in Australia, but it is not known what effect his acquittal will have on any church investigation.

Many Australians had already accepted Pell was guilty before the High Court decision. Judge Peter Kidd had berated Pell in a nationally televised sentencing hearing last year for a breach of trust that had an element of brutality a sense of impunity.

“I see this as callus, brazen offending — blatant,” Kidd said.

St. Patrick’s College, where Pell was educated in Ballarat, removed his name from a building and from the school honor board.

But the Australian Catholic University kept its Pell Center on its Ballarat campus until the appeal process was completed, angering academic staff.

The university’s president, Greg Craven, said Pell should never have been charged.

“This was a case that always had a reasonable doubt a mile wide,” Craven said. “The High Court unanimously — seven-nil — said the Victorian justice system got it hopelessly wrong.”

Pell had been serving a six-year sentence after he was convicted of sexually assaulting the two boys in December 1996 and convicted of indecently assaulting one of the boys by painfully squeezing his genitals after a Mass in early 1997.

Pell was regarded as the Vatican’s third-highest ranking official when he voluntarily returned to Melbourne in 2017 determined to clear his name of dozens of decades-old child abuse allegations.

All the charges were dropped or dismissed over the years except the cathedral allegations.

He did not testify at either trial or at the subsequent appeals.

But the juries saw his emphatic denials in a police interview that was video recorded in a Rome airport hotel conference room in October 2016.

The complainant first went to police in 2015 after the second alleged victim died of a heroin overdose at the age of 31. Neither can be identified under state law.

Lawyers for the father of the dead man, who also cannot be identified, said the verdict left him “in utter disbelief.”

Lawyers for the complainant said he was likely to make a statement on Wednesday.

Much of the hearing at the High Court last month had focused on whether the jury should have had a reasonable doubt about Pell’s guilt and whether he could have time to molest the boys in five or six minutes immediately after a Mass.

The Victorian Court of Appeal found in a 2-1 majority in August that Pell had had enough time to abuse the boys and that the unanimous guilty verdicts were sound. But the High Court found the appeals court was incorrect.

Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd told the High Court last month that the surviving choirboy’s detailed knowledge of the layout of the priests’ sacristy supported his accusation that the boys were molested there.

The High Court referred to the “unchallenged evidence” of witnesses in the trial to Pell’s practice of talking to the congregation on the cathedral stairs after Mass, church practice that required him to be accompanied in the cathedral while robed and the “continuous traffic in and out of the priests’ sacristy” as causes for reasonable doubt.

The High Court statement said, “There is a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof.”

___

Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.