Cardinal George Pell Rejects Claims He Sexually Abused Two Men
By Rebekah Cavanagh
VICTORIA Police has denied some of its officers leaked information to the media about an ongoing investigation into complaints made against Australia’s highest ranking Catholic Cardinal George Pell. Cardinal Pell has called for a fresh review after ABC television last night aired a story saying the cleric was being investigated over multiple allegations related to inappropriate behaviour involving children going back almost 40 years. The cardinal denies all of the allegations made by the complainants and said he’s being subjected to trial by media on the back of leaking “by elements of the Victoria Police to the ABC”. Victoria Police chief commissioner Graham Ashton today denied officers had leaked information to the media. “We haven’t provided the ABC with materials and we saw that show last night it’s clear the source of that information is from the victims,” Mr Ashton told Melbourne radio 3AW. “Anyone that saw the show last night, the victims, you could see their emotion, they are traumatised from what they are saying has happened to them, and are talking to the media about that.”
Mr Ashton also revealed he had referred an earlier, similar complaint from Cardinal Pell to the state’s Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission. “I got a letter from Cardinal Pell some time ago regarding a complaint around that. I sent it to IBAC and IBAC had a look and wrote back to me and said they dismissed the complaint,” he said. Mr Ashton confirmed an investigation was ongoing. “The matters raised last night are being investigated among other matters,” he said. He also said the issue was currently before the Office of Public Prosecutions and did not rule out sending officers overseas to interview Cardinal Pell. “Anything is possible at this stage,” he said. The cardinal has rejected claims by two men that he sexually abused them.
Two men, now in their 40s, came forward to detail to the ABC their claims that Cardinal Pell touched them inappropriately in Ballarat’s Eureka pool in 1978-79. Another man also claimed he saw the cardinal exposing himself to three boys in the change rooms at the Torquay Surf Club in the summer of 1986-87. The claims are among several that the Herald Sun revealed back in February were being investigated by Victoria Police’s Taskforce Sano, set up to probe allegations emerging from a state parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse. David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he hoped the latest developments would encourage others to come forward. “Despite Pell’s power, it’s crucial that others with suspicions or knowledge of his wrongdoing find the strength to speak up to secular authorities, not church figures,” he said. Within the past month, the force referred a brief of evidence on Cardinal Pell to the Office of Public Prosecutions for consideration, asking for an opinion on whether to lay charges against the world’s third-most powerful Catholic. Sources told the Herald Sun Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion had declined to give an opinion and referred the file back to police, saying it was their decision. But the DPP said it was still reviewing the file and that Mr Champion was likely to make a statement about the matter today. The case spans four decades, with the Ballarat-born cardinal accused of abusing children — now adults aged in their late 20s to early 50s — between 1978 and 2001. The two men, who told the ABC they had made statements to the police, say that Cardinal Pell touched them under their swimwear when he was playing a throwing game with them at the town’s Eureka pool in the summer of 1978-79. Lyndon Monument said: “I’m disgusted, bitter, angry. I just want him to come back and look me in the eye. “He’d play games like throw the kids out of the water, he’d have his arms like that and you’d put your leg in his hands and ‘one, two, three’, and you’re out of the water. But it was only ever with boys,” Mr Monument said. Another, Damian Dignan said that during a “game”, the then Father Pell would “grab you, around the testes ...
“(It made me feel) scared. Scared but hurt,” he said. The men, who were both students at the notorious St Alipius school in Ballarat where the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse heard abuse was rife, said they came forward to break their silence in hope of giving others the courage to do the same. “We shouldn’t be ashamed of what happened to us,” Mr Monument said. “It’s not our fault. We’ve lived with feeling like s--- for too long, we don’t have to no more.” The 74-year-old cardinal, now in charge of finances at the Vatican in Rome, “emphatically and unequivocally rejects any allegations of sexual abuse against him”.
In a statement, his office said any claims were “nothing more than a scandalous smear campaign”. It read: “The cardinal’s conduct has been repeatedly scrutinised over many years. The cardinal does not wish to cause any distress to any victim of abuse. “However, claims he has sexually abused anyone, in any place, at any time in his life are totally untrue and completely wrong. If there was any credibility in any of these claims, they would have been pursued by the Royal Commission by now.” Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton told the Herald Sun last month that sex crime detectives could go to Italy to interview Cardinal Pell “if that became necessary”. Victoria Police would not comment on the matter last night. Contact: rebekah.cavanagh@news.com.au
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