AUSTRALIA
7 News
AAP
BY PETER TRUTE
March 18, 2014
Cardinal George Pell knew the Catholic Church was pursuing an abuse victim for more than $500,000 in legal costs against the advice of its lawyers, the royal commission into child sex abuse has heard.
A lawyer who acted for the Sydney archdiocese told the hearing then-Archbishop Pell was “seemingly giving instructions” on how to conduct some of the church’s vigorous defence against a claim made by abuse victim John Ellis.
Paul McCann, a partner in law firm Corrs Chambers Wesgarth which acted for the archdiocese in the Ellis case, on Tuesday said he had told the church it should not pursue costs but his advice was not followed.
Mr McCann said the church’s insurers, Catholic Church Insurance (CCI) had “strongly taken” the position that “they had interests to underwriters that needed to be taken into account”.
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