AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 12, 2014

LAWYERS acting for Cardinal George Pell privately told his office they had won a “conclusive victory” against a victim of child sex abuse, which placed “a number of significant obstacles” ahead of others seeking to sue the Catholic Church.

The 2007 briefing note is one of several confidential documents tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse relating to the case of former altar boy John Ellis, who was abused by a Sydney priest.

They show the church’s lawyers, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, recommended “a media campaign” to “capitalise on this result” and ensure other lawyers considering action against the church were aware of the court’s findings.

Several of the documents also appear to contradict Mr Ellis’s account of a 2009 meeting with Cardinal Pell, where the then-archbishop of Sydney claimed not to have known how…