|
George Pell leaks undermine child sex abuse royal commission: archbishop
By Calla Wahlquist
A senior Australian Catholic church figure has called for an investigation into the “leaks” at Victoria police, following reports that police were investigating allegations of sexual abuse by Cardinal George Pell a week before the 74-year-old was due to appear before the royal commission. The Melbourne archbishop, Denis Hart, who succeeded Pell in the role in 2001, said the allegations that Pell had committed “multiple offences” both as a priest in Ballarat and in his later role as archbishop of Melbourne “do not reflect the man I have known for more than 50 years”. “It is very disturbing and concerning to read reports based on leaks to the media that Victoria police has been investigating allegations of abuse against Cardinal George Pell for the past year and that his first knowledge of these allegations has come from those media reports,” Hart said in a statement issued on Saturday. “The leaked allegations coming at the end of a week in which Cardinal Pell was publicly denigrated and a week before he appears at the royal commission appear designed to do maximum damage to Cardinal Pell and undermine the work of the royal commission. In this environment it is the responsibility of the royal commission to provide a fair and balanced forum for all who appear before it.” Hart said that leaking to the media “undermines the criminal justice system” and the presumption of innocence, saying: “I support calls for an independent investigation into the source of the leaks.” Those calls appear to have originated from Pell’s office, which issued a statement on Friday saying the 74-year-old denied the allegations as “without foundation and utterly false” and timed “to do maximum damage”. “Given the serious nature of this conduct, the cardinal has called for a public inquiry to be conducted in relation to the actions of those elements of the Victorian police who are undermining the royal commission’s work,” the statement said. “The cardinal calls on the premier and the police minister to immediately investigate the leaking of these baseless allegations.” It followed reports on Friday that detectives from Taskforce Sano, the taskforce established to investigate claims of sexual abuse arising from the royal commission, had compiled a dossier of allegations that Pell had committed “multiple offences” as a priest in the south-west Victorian town of Ballarat in 1978 and as the archbishop of Melbourne between 1996 and 2001. It reportedly alleged he had sexually abused minors “by both grooming and opportunity”. News Corp Australia has since reported that detectives were waiting on senior Victoria police figures to sign off on them travelling to the Vatican, where Pell is the secretariat for the economy and one of the key promoters of Pope Francis’s reform agenda. Victoria police has refused to comment on the reports, saying on Sunday that it was “currently conducting a large number of investigations into historic sexual offending”. “Victoria police will not provide a running commentary on these investigations as it would be inappropriate to do so,” a police spokeswoman said. The statement from Pell’s office said he had not been contacted by police but would cooperate with any police investigation. He also called for a public inquiry into the claims being leaked, saying it was done so “in a manner clearly designed to embarrass the cardinal.” “The Southwell report which exonerated Cardinal Pell has been in the public domain since 2002,” the statement said. “The Victorian police have taken no steps in all of that time to pursue the false allegations made, however the cardinal certainly has no objection to them reviewing the materials that led Justice Southwell to exonerate him. The cardinal is certain that the police will quickly reach the conclusion that the allegations are false.” The retired Victorian supreme court judge Alec Southwell was hired by the Catholic church to investigate allegations Pell had sexually abused a 12-year-old boy at Phillip Island youth camp in 1961. His concluding remarks were that he was not satisfied that the complaint had been established. Pell is due to give evidence before the commission on February 29. He will do so via video link from Rome, after his lawyer argued he was too unwell to travel. A group of survivors abused at the hands of paedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale plan to travel to Rome to watch his testimony, funded by a high-profile fundraising campaign that has so far gathered more than $200,000. Pell has said he would meet with the group.
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.