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WORLD NEWS Thursday 6 June 2019

Australian Cardinal Pell appeals child sex convictions

By ROD McGUIRK bishop Pell molested the
Associated Press boys in a rear room over
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) five or six minutes, gave
— Lawyers for the most se- evidence that the offences
nior Roman Catholic found did not or could not have
guilty of child sex abuse occurred.
argued in his appeal on "This evidence constituted
Wednesday that he could a catalogue of at least 13
not have molested two solid obstacles in the path
choirboys in an Australian of a conviction," the sub-
cathedral undetected mo- missions said.
ments after Sunday Masses "No matter what view was
while he was dressed in an taken of the complainant
archbishop's robes. as a witness, it was simply
Cardinal George Pell, 77, not open to a jury to ac-
wore a black suit and black cept his words beyond
shirt with a cleric's collar reasonable doubt," they
when he appeared for the added.
Victoria state Court of Ap- Pell's lawyers argue in their
peal hearing before three submissions the "the evi-
judges. He came and went dence showed the offend-
from the court as the sole ing was impossible."
occupant of a prison van. One of the appeal judges,
He said nothing during the Justice Mark Weinberg,
hearing. said the term "impossibil-
Pell's lawyer Bret Walker ity" had been used by the
argued for more than five In this Feb. 27, 2019, file photo, Cardinal George Pell arrives at the County Court in Melbourne, defense repeatedly during
hours that the five verdicts Australia. Pell's trial and was "quite
against Pell were "unsafe Associated Press misleading in lots of ways."
and unsatisfactory" and One of Pell's victims died of
should be overturned. thing." similar charges that had he made "grave errors" in a heroin overdose in 2014
Pell's lawyers cited former The prosecution will ar- ended in September with a Chile's worst case of cover- at the age of 31, appar-
High Court Justice Michael gue on Thursday why the deadlocked jury. up, Pell was convicted of ently without making any
McHugh who said "juries verdicts were sound and Pell was sentenced in abuse, a French cardinal accusation of abuse. State
are likely to be affected by should stand. Whoever March to six years in prison. was convicted of failing to law prevents victims of sex-
the prejudices and even wins, the case could reach He is held in special protec- report a pedophile, and a ual assault from being pub-
the hysterias that from time the High Court, Australia's tive custody because pe- third cardinal, former U.S. licly identified. Weeks after
to time are found in the ultimate arbiter. dophiles are regarded as church leader Theodore Pell molested the two boys
community." A jury unanimously con- being at higher risk of harm McCarrick, was defrocked in a priests' sacristy, the
Demonstrator Joe Mitchell, victed Pell in December of from other prisoners. after a Vatican investiga- then archbishop has been
83, drove more than 1,000 orally raping a 13-year-old While Pell remains Aus- tion determined he molest- convicted of squeezing the
kilometers (600 miles) from choirboy and indecently tralia's highest-ranking ed children and adults. surviving choirboy's genitals
his home in Newcastle in dealing with the boy and Catholic, the Vatican is Walker told the three judg- as they passed in a corridor
New South Wales state to the boy's 13-year-old friend conducting its own investi- es the main ground for ap- after Mass. Pell's lawyers
Melbourne to protest out- in Melbourne's St. Patrick's gation into the convictions peal was that the jury could argue that the new arch-
side the court against the Cathedral in the late 1990s. of Pope Francis's former fi- not have found Pell guilty bishop would have been
church response to child Pell had become arch- nance minister. beyond reasonable doubt speaking to worshippers on
abuse. bishop of Melbourne, Aus- Francis' papacy has been on the evidence. the front steps of the cathe-
"I'm a victim. I hope they tralia's second-largest city, thrown into turmoil by In written submissions, Pell's dral in the moments after a
put a rope around his ... only months before. clerical sexual abuse and lawyers said that more than Mass in December 1996,
neck," a tearful Mitchell Court orders for months the church's handling of 20 prosecution witnesses when the prosecutors al-
said. "They say how could had prevented publica- such cases worldwide. In who had an official role in leged he found his victims
you remember back 70 tion of the details of that a little more than a year, the Sunday Mass in 1996, swigging altar wine and
years? I remember every- trial and an earlier trial on the pope has admitted after which the then-Arch- abused them.q