BishopAccountability.org

Vic police won't rule out visiting Pell

The Mercury
August 17, 2016

http://www.themercury.com.au/news/breaking-news/vic-police-wont-rule-out-visit-to-pell/news-story/ab96973428ae9a310de7a5a427dea076

Victorian investigators have not ruled out flying to Rome to investigate Cardinal George Pell.

Victorian investigators have not ruled out flying to Rome to investigate allegations of historical child sex abuse against Cardinal George Pell.

Victoria Police on Wednesday said they are considering whether to lay charges over alleged historical sexual assaults in Ballarat between 1976 and 1980 and East Melbourne between 1996 and 2001.

Police declined to say whether investigators would fly to Rome to interview Cardinal Pell after two men accused him of groping their genitals in the 1970s, while another says he saw the priest expose himself to young boys.

Cardinal Pell's office has emphatically rejected the claims, calling them "without foundation and utterly false".

Investigators sent a brief of evidence to the Office of Public Prosecutions in July but won't say what kind of advice they have received.

"We have received advice from the DPP and will now take the time to consider it," Victoria Police said in a statement.

"As with any investigation, it remains a decision for Victoria Police as to whether charges will be laid."

Cardinal Pell was the Archbishop of Melbourne between 1996 and 2001 before becoming a cardinal in 2003.

Taskforce Sano - which was established to investigate historical and new allegations of institutional sexual abuse - spent a year investigating the allegations against Cardinal Pell, the Herald Sun revealed in February.

After details of the police investigation were leaked to media, Cardinal Pell formally requested the Victorian government start an inquiry.

Victoria Police denied they were behind the leak and the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission has been tasked with uncovering the source.

 




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