AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Stephanie Chalkley-Rhoden and staff
Victims of child sex abuse and their families are angry at Cardinal George Pell’s delay in giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Cardinal Pell’s long-awaited appearance at the inquiry has been delayed after his lawyers said he was suffering from a heart condition which made him too sick to travel to Australia.
Allan Myers QC applied for Cardinal Pell, who is based in Rome, to give his testimony via video link instead, a request which was denied by the inquiry’s chair, Justice Peter McClellan.
Justice McClellan said he would call Cardinal Pell to give evidence before the inquiry in Ballarat, a diocese that has been described by victims as being a “centre of sex crimes against children”, in February.
“It is preferable that his evidence be given in person in Australia,” Justice McClellan said.
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