Cardinal George Pell was yesterday released from prison after the High Court of Australia quashed his conviction for child sex abuse, bringing to an abrupt end the most high-profile pedophilia 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 had steadfastly maintained his innocence throughout a lengthy court sprocess, exited the jail where he has been held for the past year and issued a statement saying that a “serious injustice” had been remedied by the decision.
Photo: AP
A jury had convicted Pell of the offenses in December 2018 and that decision was upheld by a three-judge panel in Victoria state’s Court of Appeal in August last year, in a split 2-1 verdict.
However, the 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.”
However, Pell’s legal woes might not be at an end, as he faces several possible civil cases, 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.
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.
“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,” she said.
Victims’ support group the Blue Knot Foundation 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,” Blue Knot president Cathy Kezelman said.
“Pell now has his freedom, but many abuse victims have never been free — trapped in the horror of the crimes which decimated their lives,” she added.
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.
In Vatican City, Pope Francis, speaking just hours after Pell’s acquittal, offered his morning Mass for those who suffer from unjust sentences.
Each morning at the Mass in his residence, Francis chooses an intention for the service, such as remembering the poor, the homeless or the sick.
“I would like to pray today for all those people who suffer unjust sentences resulting from intransigence [against them[,” Francis said, speaking extemporaneously at the start of the Mass.
He did not mention Pell by name.
In recent weeks, the pope’s intentions for nearly all of his daily Masses have been related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Francis compared the suffering of those inflicted with unjust sentences today to the way Jewish community elders persecuted Jesus with “obstinacy and rage even though he was innocent.”
The Vatican had no immediate comment on the verdict on Pell, which comes in the middle of Holy Week, the period leading up to Easter, the most important day in the Christian calendar.
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