Police Are Investigating Child Abuse Allegations against Cardinal George Pell Who Rejects Them
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When asked why he didn’t come forward earlier, he said it was too traumatising to discuss. “Because it was a lot of pain for not only me but for a lot of other people. And I learnt to deal with things by just keeping them close to me, I suppose,” he said. In a statement to the ABC, Cardinal Pell’s office said he would not be giving an interview to ABC 730 and “emphatically and unequivocally rejects any allegations of sexual abuse against him”. Mr Monument also alleges in his statement that Pell invited him into the changerooms after they went swimming. “He would undress. And then he would say to us to undress. So we would undress. And then he would teach you how to dry your testicles and in between your bum and stuff like that,” he told the program. When asked by ABC 730 if he was wearing any clothes at the time, Mr Monument said: “No”. Mr Monument’s childhood friend, Damian Dignan, also told ABC 730 that he told police about the throwing game in the pool with Pell.
Mr Dignan’s allegations remain untested by the law. But he said he was scared of Pell. “It’s sort of hard to explain. To sit in the confession box with a very, very strong scary man sitting on the other side. We were very, very scared as little kids,” he said. In another complaint, Les Tyack from Torquay gave a statement to the royal commission last year. He alleged he walked into the Torquay Surf Life Saving Club in 1986-87 and found George Pell allegedly naked in front of three boys he estimates were aged between eight and 10. “I thought that was not on. Very strange situation for an adult to be full frontal to three young boys. I said to the young boys, ‘Finish doing what you’re doing, off you go.’ When they left, I then said to, George Pell, ‘I know what you’re up to. P*** off, get out of here. If I see you in this club again, I’ll call the police,’” he told ABC 730.
Another complaint about Pell that ABC 730 aired relates to when he was setting up the Melbourne Response — the Australian Catholic Church’s first attempt to seriously address child abuse in the 1990s. At the time, he was the Archbishop of Melbourne. The alleged incident involved two teenage choirboys who asked their parents to leave the choir after alleged abuse had occurred. One of the boys died. The other is working with Victorian Taskforce SANO detectives. ABC 730 said that a spokesman for Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton confirmed it is “very much a live investigation”. The program said that the Pell case has been referred by Victoria Police to the Office of Public Prosecutions for advice. Cardinal Pell, 75, is Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, serving as the Vatican’s finance chief. In its statement to the ABC, Cardinal Pell’s office said: “The Cardinal’s conduct has been repeatedly scrutinised over many years, including before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations and according to leaked reports, by Victorian Police’s SANO Taskforce.
Les Tyack recalls an incident with George Pell on ABC 730. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied
“The Cardinal does not wish to cause any distress to any victim of abuse. However, claims that he has sexually abused anyone, in any place, at any time in his life are totally untrue and completely wrong. “He denies the allegations absolutely, and says that they, and any acceptance of them by the ABC, are nothing more than a scandalous smear campaign which appears to be championed by the ABC. If there was any credibility in any of these claims, they would have been pursued by the Royal Commission by now. “In February this year media outlets carried stories of purported allegations against the Cardinal which were being investigated by the SANO Taskforce. “However, no request has been made to interview Cardinal Pell nor has he received any details of these claims from the police or anyone. In late May the Cardinal was advised by the SANO Taskforce that there had been no change in the status of the investigation since the leaks were first reported. “When Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton was asked in June this year if there were any plans to speak with Cardinal Pell in Rome he replied “.....it had not been put as necessary to me at this point in time.”
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart also issued a statement saying the allegations on ABC 730 do not reflect the man he knows as Cardinal Pell. “I have known Cardinal Pell as a seminarian, priest, bishop and friend for more than 55 years,” he wrote. “The allegations made on the ABC 7.30 Report on 27 July against Cardinal Pell do not reflect the man I know or the behaviour which I have observed over the years I have known him. “All citizens are entitled to have allegations of criminal conduct investigated independently and according to law by the Police. “Cardinal Pell is entitled to have allegations against him investigated according to the usual lawful processes without being compromised or sensationalised by the media. Cardinal Pell is also like all citizens entitled to the presumption of innocence. All in society are at risk if these basic tenets are breached.”
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