Cardinal George Pell under Pressure to Face Child Sex Abuse Claims

By Liz Burke
news.com.au
July 28, 2016

http://www.news.com.au/national/cardinal-george-pell-under-pressure-to-face-child-sex-abuse-claims/news-story/1f1ebdb34ab793cf4e5d89c63e1b19ac

CALLS have been made for Cardinal George Pell to stand down from his senior role at the Vatican and return to Australia to face allegations of child sex abuse made against him.

Speaking about the allegations on Melbourne’s 3AW radio, commentator Neil Mitchell said Pell needed to return to Australia.

“George Pell needs to step down from his role at the Vatican and come back to Australia,” Mitchell said this morning.

“He has reportedly accused Victoria Police and the ABC of acting effectively illegally against him, conspiring against him.

“He needs to come back and prove that. Deal with it, and deal with the now detailed public allegations and accusations of assaulting children. Allegations he denies.

“I think he has to come back and confront it — step down from the Vatican, leave of absence.”

The Vatican is yet to respond, and the Pope is considered unlikely to consider the allegations until at least next Tuesday after he returns from World Youth Day celebrations in Poland.

A pair of men who claim to have been touched inappropriately by the powerful Catholic cleric as children have made their accusations public, prompting Pell to strenuously deny the claims and urge a criminal investigation into the police acting on reports and the broadcaster that aired them.

The ABC’s 7.30 program last night reported claims that Victorian police were investigating multiple allegations of child sex abuse by the cardinal dating back to the late 1970s.

Daman Dignan and Lyndon Monument were students at St Alipius school in Ballarat, where Pell was stationed as a priest before being promoted to Archbishop of Melbourne.

After allegedly battling with the decision to speak out for decades, silenced by beatings and feeling “ashamed”, the pair revealed their shocking claims against the now senior Vatican official.

Mr Monument told the program that Pell would allegedly touch his penis, testicles and anus before throwing him up into the air in the local swimming pool where schoolboys would play.

“He’d throw us off his shoulders. There’d be three or four on him at a time, crawling all over him, the front, the back. He would grab you from — have his hands on your backside and then he’d push you off. He just seemed to be there all day, every day,” he said, adding that the contact escalated when boys were under the water.

“You know, his hand touching your genitals and stuff on the outside of your bathers or shorts. And then that showily became hand down the front of the pants or your bathers or whatever you call them.”

Lyndon Monument made the claims against George Pell on 7:30.Source:ABC

Mr Monument went on to allege the priest would stand naked with boys in the fitting room, tell them to undress and “teach you how to dry your testicles, and, you know, in between your bum and stuff like that”.

He said as a student he never considered speaking up about the alleged molestation.

“I tried not to think about it,” he told the program.

“He was always just the godly figure. We all had to look up to him. We would get told in class that George Pell is coming today, so brush your hair and tuck yourself in.”

Mr Monument said as an adult he still found the alleged experience too traumatising to discuss, and delayed speaking to police about it until he had been approached several times.

“Because it was a lot of pain not only for 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.

A second man, Mr Monument’s childhood friend Mr Dignan, also came forward to 7.30 after speaking with Victoria police. Both men’s allegations are being investigated by police, but remain untested by law.

“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,” Mr Dignan said.

He said he also struggled with the decision to make his claims public.

“Like a dog that’s been beaten too much. You’ve got no confidence. You can’t talk and you’ll never talk. You feel ashamed,” he said.

Damian Dignan also came forward with allegations.Source:ABC

Cardinal Pell has strenuously denied all claims, and has called for an investigation into Victoria Police to determine whether there has been a “conspiracy to pervert the course of justice”.

The cardinal believes he is the victim of a “scandalous smear campaign” by the ABC.

“It seems there has been leaking of information and allegations by elements of the Victorian Police to the ABC,” a statement released on his behalf said.

“The cardinal calls for an investigation to assess whether any actions of elements of the Victoria Police and the ABC program amount to a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.”

Victoria Police chief commissioner Graham Ashton said it had not provided any material to the ABC, and that it was clear the source of the claims was the alleged victims.

Cardinal Pell said he did not wish to cause harm to those making allegations, but vehemently denied them.

“I bear no ill will and have no desire to cause them harm but what they say about me is not true,” he said in a statement.