07 April 2020, The Tablet

Cardinal Pell acquitted of child sex abuse

by Mark Bowling

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George Pell leaves HM Prison Barwon in Geelong, Tuesday, April 7, 2020. Cardinal George Pell has won his appeal bid to the High Court and was freed from prison after spending more than 400 days behind bars.
DAVID CROSLING/AAP/PA Images

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."