Two Men Claim Cardinal Pell Abused Them
By Rebekah Cavanagh
George Pell has rejected claims by two men that he sexually abused them. Two men, now in their 40s, came forward to detail to the ABC tonight that Cardinal Pell touched them inappropriately in Ballarat’s Eureka pool in 1978-79. The claims are among several which the Herald Sun revealed in February were being investigated by Victoria Police’s Taskforce Sano. We can now reveal the force referred a brief of evidence on Cardinal Pell to the Office of Public Prosecutions for consideration within the last month, requesting an opinion on whether or not to charge the world’s third most powerful Catholic.
But the Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion declined to give an opinion and referred the file back to the police, saying it was a decision for them. 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 tonight they had made statements to the police, say he touched them inappropriately in the summer of 1978-79 when he was playing a throwing game with them at the town’s Eureka pool. 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”, then-Father Pell would “grab you, around the testes ...” “[It made me feel] scared. Scared but hurt — very forceful around the a---,” Mr Dignan said. The 74-year-old cardinal, now in charge of finances at the Vatican in Rome, has “emphatically and unequivocally rejects any allegations of sexual abuse against him”.
In a statement, the Office of Cardinal George Pell said any claims were “nothing more than a scandalous smear campaign”. “The Cardinal’s conduct has been repeatedly scrutinised over many years,” it read. “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. “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 tonight.
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