Abuse survivors call for action on George Pell sex claims

By Tessa Akerman, John Ferguson
Australian
June 23, 2017

https://goo.gl/bHE7qh

Catholic Church officials are on edge over the possibility of ­Cardinal Pell being charged but Australia’s most senior Catholic remains insistent that he has done nothing wrong.

Police are believed to be winding up their investigations into the cardinal but senior church figures have yet to be told whether or not charges will be laid.

Peter Blenkiron, who was 11 when he was abused by a Christian Brother at school in Ballarat, said it was unhelpful for police to leave people speculating about reasons for the delay.

The Office of Public Prosecutions returned the second brief of evidence on Cardinal Pell to the police in mid-May, with officers as recently as this month still trawling through unsubstantiated allegations against the former archbishop of Melbourne.

A brief was referred last year but the OPP sent it back without recommendations.

Mr Blenkiron told The Australian the delay would make sense if more witnesses were coming forward and they were strengthening the allegations.

“We’re all left in the dark trying to understand (the delay),” Mr Blenkiron said.

Lawyer Ingrid Irwin, who represents one of Cardinal Pell’s ­alleged victims, said police told her client that they were “on the cusp of something big” early last year.

She said she felt helpless as a lawyer to help her client when the investigation had drawn out for more than two years and yet police came to Ballarat just weeks ago to interview more people. “Ballarat is going to be forever damaged,” she said.

Fellow abuse survivor Frank Hampster said a member from Victoria Police had approached him in April about his comedy act, which deals with the Catholic Church and sexual abuse.

He said the officer told him the taskforce was under pressure to “drop the whole thing”.

The Australian reported last week that police were still investigating the claims and had recently interviewed at least three men who were choirboys at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cath­edral between 1996 and 2001 when Cardinal Pell was then archbishop of Melbourne.

Cardinal Pell has repeatedly denied all ­allegations of sexual abuse and has co-operated fully with the ­investigation.

Victoria Police chief commissioner Graham Ashton has previously given some details on how the matter would proceed should Cardinal Pell be charged.

“The person subject (to the allegat­ions), their legal staff and legal representatives for the allege­d victims in the matter are part of the consultation process before the community is,” Mr Ashton said.

“If a decision is made not to proceed, that communication will be made to both those groups. If a decision is made to procee­d, it will be like any other matter. The suspect is overseas, so it usually starts with making out warrants.”