"Cardinal George Pell committed to stand trial on multiple historical sexual assault charges"
Feels odd i can't even find Pell's trial dates. Surely they've been set by now. There are to be two trials. Can't find anything on the case since that one.
"Cardinal George Pell committed to stand trial on multiple historical sexual assault charges"
Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal George Pell, has been convicted of sexually abusing two choirboys while he was archbishop of Melbourne.
* The abuse occurred at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996.
* Pell pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer has indicated he will launch an appeal against the conviction.
* Pell was convicted in December but details of the trial can only now be made public after a suppression order was lifted.
By court reporter Emma Younger Updated 26 Feb 2019, 13:13pm Published 26 Feb 2019, 10:10am
Cardinal George Pell did little more than shift his gaze to the carpet, barely registering an expression, as he became the most senior Catholic cleric ever convicted of sexually abusing children.
“Guilty,” the jury foreperson repeated as a woman audibly hyperventilated in the public pews of the courtroom.
It was the end of a five-week trial in the Victorian County Court and more than three days of deliberations by the jury.
And everyone involved in the case, bar the jury, had been here before. The first jury to hear the case had to be discharged, some of them in tears, when they were not able to reach a unanimous decision.
But this time guilty verdicts were returned on all charges — one count of sexual penetration of a child under the age of 16 and four counts of committing an indecent act with, or in the presence of, a child.
Moments earlier, Pell’s legal team had appeared relaxed as they chatted waiting for the court to reconvene.
Now, they sat stony faced at the bar table as the word ‘guilty’ hung in the air.
After the jury filed out, the cardinal’s barrister addressed the judge in uncharacteristically hushed tones, applying to have his client’s bail extended so he could have knee surgery in Sydney.
The judge agreed to grant Pell a short reprieve and instead remand him in custody at his plea hearing.
“This is in no way a sign of the sentence Cardinal Pell will face,” Judge Peter Kidd told the court.
Ahead of his sentencing next week Pell will spend time behind bars, thousands of kilometres and a literal world away from his former home at the Vatican.
A court sketch shows George Pell during his trial for sexually abusing two choirboys. Supplied: Fay Plamka
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