Cardinal Pell Proclaims Innocence on Sex Abuse Allegations

Herald Sun
May 17, 2017

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/cardinal-pell-proclaims-innocence-on-sex-abuse-allegations/news-story/ca25886e69a8d099b2bcf980d6efe582

CARDINAL George Pell has proclaimed his innocence, after the Herald Sun revealed Victoria Police had received the final advice to decide whether to charge him following historical sex abuse allegations.

Cardinal Pell on Wednesday said he would “just like to restate my innocence”.

“I stand by everything I have said at the Royal Commission [into institutional responses to child sexual abuse] and in other places,” he told Channel Seven at the Vatican.

“We have to respect due process, wait until it is concluded and obviously I will continue to co-operate fully.”

Cardinal George Pell walks onto the stage for the opening mass for World Youth Day in Sydney. Picture: AP/Rick Rycroft, File

His statement came after it was revealed the Director of Public Prosecutions had advised police it could charge the cardinal, after it assessed a brief of evidence prepared by officers who interviewed the 75-year-old in Rome in last October.

A statement from Victoria Police released on Tuesday said Detective from Taskforce Sano will take time to consider the DPP’s advice.

Australia’s most senior Catholic, Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher, on Wednesday said in a statement “justice must be left to run its course”.

“Everyone supports just investigation of complaints but the relentless character attacks on Cardinal Pell, by some, stand the principle of innocent-until-proven- guilty on its head.

“Even churchmen have a right to ‘a fair go’.”

The Herald Sun revealed in February last year that Cardinal Pell was being investigated following allegations he sexually abused up to 10 boys between 1978 and 2001, while he was a priest in Ballarat and then archbishop of Melbourne.