Cardinal Pell acquitted of child sex abuse
Cardinal George Pell has been acquitted of child sex abuse and released from jail.
After an extraordinary legal fight to clear
his name the 78-year-old prelate, formerly the Vatican’s chief
financial officer and an adviser to Pope Francis, was released from the
maximum security Barwon prison in Victoria early this morning after
serving a year of a six-year jail term.
“I have consistently maintained my
innocence while suffering from a serious injustice, " Cardinal Pell said
in a statement issued soon after the High Court of Australia quashed
his conviction.
“I hold no ill will to my accuser, I do
not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel;
there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough.
“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.”
Cardinal Pell became the highest-ranking
church official to be jailed for sexually abusing children when, in
2018, a County Court jury convicted him of attacks on two choirboys more
than two decades earlier.
High Court judges ruled 7-0 that the jury should have entertained a doubt about Cardinal Pell’s guilt.
The ruling quashes Cardinal Pell’s
conviction based on allegations that the prelate had abused the
choirboys at St Patrick's Cathedral in 1996 and 1997, soon after he
became Archbishop of Melbourne.
One of the boys gave evidence against Cardinal Pell, while the second died in 2014, without disclosing any abuse.
A jury found Cardinal Pell guilty of five counts of sexual abuse, although he had always maintained his innocence.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions on public
gatherings, there were none of the boisterous rallies from supporters of
Cardinal Pell and victims’ advocates that had been seen at previous
court hearings.
But Cardinal Pell’s release has unleashed an extraordinary reaction in the Australian and Catholic communities.
“The highest court in the land has made its decision and it must be respected,” Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison said.
The clergy victims’ group Snap said “hearts
ache” for the surviving choir boy and that it hoped the court’s
decision “does not deter other victims from coming forward to report
their abuse”.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by
Priests said: “We believe that this ruling will make others lose their
faith in the criminal justice system and will send the message that
survivors should stay hidden and silent rather than come forward and
seek justice.”
The full judgment of the High Court takes
aim at the Court of Appeal in Victoria, that last year dismissed
Cardinal Pell’s appeal by a majority of two-to-one.
The High Court judgment goes right to heart
of the question of “reasonable doubt”, saying that in the case of the
Court of Appeal, their Honours’ analysis “failed to engage with the
question of whether … there remained a reasonable possibility that the
offending had not taken place, such that there ought to have been a
reasonable doubt as to the applicant’s guilt.”
“The unchallenged evidence of the
opportunity witnesses was inconsistent with the complainant’s account,
and described: (i) the applicant’s practice of greeting congregants on
or near the Cathedral steps after Sunday solemn Mass; (ii) the
established and historical Catholic church practice that required that
the applicant, as an archbishop, always be accompanied when robed in the
Cathedral; and (iii) the continuous traffic in and out of the priests’
sacristy for ten to 15 minutes after the conclusion of the procession
that ended Sunday solemn Mass,” the High Court said.
During the High Court Appeal, Cardinal
Pell’s lawyer, Bret Walker SC argued that key parts of the evidence
presented at the 2018 trial must have given the jurors reasonable doubt.
Their testimony supported Cardinal Pell’s
practice, when Archbishop of Melbourne in December 1996, of standing on
the cathedral steps after Sunday Mass to greet parishioners and the
“hive of activity” that surrounded the priests’ sacristy at the time the
abuse is said to have occurred.
Former Victorian Chief Magistrate, Nick
Papas QC, said the High Court ruling showed that the possibility of
doubt can’t be excluded in a court case.
“In the end beyond reasonable doubt means a
jury has to be satisfied that they can exclude all other possibilities
of innocence. And in circumstances when you have competing versions it’s
not which version is preferred, it’s the ability to be satisfied that
the possibility of innocence has been excluded.
“And so you might have an occasion when
witnesses are perfectly believable, as was apparently the case in
Cardinal Pell’s case. Still, once you have other evidence how can you be
satisfied beyond reasonable doubt?
“And that’s why the High Court, operating as a safety value here has found Cardinal Pell not guilty.”
The President of the Australian Catholic
Bishops’ Conference, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge said the
quashing of Cardinal Pell’s convictions would be welcomed by those who
have believed the cardinal was innocent.
“We also recognise that the High Court’s
decision will be devastating for others. Many have suffered greatly
through the process, which has now reached its conclusion,” Archbishop
Coleridge said.
He said the Church maintained an unwavering
commitment to child safety and to a just and compassionate response to
survivors and victims of child sexual abuse.
“The safety of children remains supremely
important not only for the bishops, but for the entire Catholic
community. Any person with allegations of sexual abuse by Church
personnel should go to the police,” Archbishop Coleridge said.
The Holy See said in a statement it had always had aconfidence in
the Australian judicial authority and that it welcomed the High Court’s
unanimous decision: "Entrusting his case to the court’s justice,
Cardinal Pell has always maintained his innocence, and has waited for
the truth to be ascertained. At the same time, the Holy See reaffirms
its commitment to preventing and pursuing all cases of abuse against
minors."
No comments:
Post a Comment