Victoria Police Must Interview Cardinal George Pell for Sake of Justice

The Age
July 28, 2016

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-editorial/victoria-police-must-interview-cardinal-george-pell-for-sake-of-justice-20160728-gqfrhh.html

The presumption of innocence is fundamental to our legal system and to natural justice.

Cardinal George Pell, the third highest-ranking leader of the Catholic Church, is accused by a number of people of child sexual abuse, for which he has been under investigation for more than a year by Victoria Police's Taskforce Sano, established following the state parliamentary inquiry that was a precursor to the federal Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The presumption of innocence is fundamental to our legal system and to natural justice.

Cardinal George Pell, the third highest-ranking leader of the Catholic Church, is accused by a number of people of child sexual abuse, for which he has been under investigation for more than a year by Victoria Police's Taskforce Sano, established following the state parliamentary inquiry that was a precursor to the federal Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Cardinal George Pell has strongly rejected the allegations against him. Photo: Getty Images/Marco Di Lauro

Cardinal Pell has on more than one occasion testified before the royal commission, including via video from Rome when ill-health prevented him from travelling. His testimony has been almost exclusively about his and the church's response to evidence of the widespread rape and sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests over many years.

The Age finds it strange that in an investigation that has been running for more than a year the police have not interviewed the accused. Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton, in response to Cardinal Pell's statement, said criminal charges might be laid and that detectives were waiting on an opinion from the Office of Public Prosecutions. He also said it was not unusual that those accused were not interviewed until the final stages of an investigation. We urge that such an interview take place as soon as possible. Optimally, Cardinal Pell should return to Australia to face police questioning. However, should he again argue he is too unwell to travel, Victoria Police should send detectives to Rome.

There is ample precedent in public life that demonstrates that the presumption of innocence does not preclude, and nor is it undermined by, accused people standing aside from powerful and influential leadership roles pending the outcome of police investigations or official inquiries. The Age has consistently argued that Cardinal Pell has failed in his duty of care to the survivors of some of the most terrible crimes imaginable. Rather than leading a purge of his church of paedophile priests, he presided over an organisation that covered up their crimes and was more interested in its own reputation and finances than the victims. The internal mechanism Archbishop Pell then put in place to ostensibly support survivors was grossly inadequate; it has spent twice as much on lawyers than on reparations to survivors.

Cardinal Pell is entitled to the presumption of innocence, but there is a strong argument he should stand aside, or be stood aside by the Pope, pending the outcome of the investigation. And we urge Victoria Police to expedite the investigation in the interests of natural justice for all involved.