AUSTRALIA
The Australian
DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 18, 2014
CARDINAL George Pell was closely involved in the handling of a controversial court case brought by a former altar boy who was sexually abused by a Sydney priest, the royal commission has heard.
The evidence, given this afternoon by one of the church’s lawyers, Paul McCann, appears to conflict with other evidence heard by the commission that the former Archbishop of Sydney had little or no role in the conduct of the case.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is investigating an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to sue the church made by the abuse victim, John Ellis, which was rejected by the NSW Supreme Court in 2007.
Mr McCann said he had been told “to defeat the litigation” and his instructions throughout the case came from Cardinal Pell’s private secretary, Michael Casey, with the apparent authorisation of the then-archbishop himself.
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