AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Thursday 4 February 2016
Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, has applied to give evidence to the child abuse royal commission via video link from Rome rather than appearing in person, leaving victims angered and disappointed.
At a directions hearing in Sydney on Friday, Pell’s lawyers tended medical documents to the commission that said Pell was still unwell and flying could pose a risk to his health. Pell again requested to appear via video link, with his lawyer, Allan Myers, saying the cardinal would be willing to do so “as soon as possible”.
Pell had been due to give evidence to the royal commission into institutional responses into child sexual abuse at the second stage of the Ballarat hearings late last year. But in December the commission heard that Pell was too unwell to appear at the hearings before Melbourne’s county court. He requested to appear via video link from Rome instead.
At the time, the chair of the commission, Justice Peter McClellan, refused Pell’s request. He said the commission would wait until February to see if Pell’s condition improved so that he could fly to Australia and face the commission during hearings due at the end of February.
McClellan said given Pell was due to give evidence on complicated matters, including about abuse that occurred in Ballarat, and the response of the Archdiocese of Melbourne to reports of abuse in its institutions, it was preferable Pell appear in person at a later date than video video link.
McClellan will announce his decision on Monday.
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