AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail
By JENNY AWFORD FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
Cardinal George Pell is being investigated over claims that he sexually abused and groomed minors, it has been reported.
An explosive Herald Sun report claimed Victoria Police is probing allegations about ‘multiple offences’ committed when the 74-year-old was a priest in Ballarat and Archbishop of Melbourne.
But Cardinal Pell has vehemently denied the allegations, saying they are ‘without foundation and utterly false’, according to a spokesman.
The report said a taskforce is investigating claims that Cardinal Pell sexually abused minors by ‘both grooming and opportunity’.
Detectives have reportedly been working on the investigation, which has involved interviewing ‘numerous’ alleged victims, over the past year.
Victoria Police told Daily Mail Australia they are aware of the report but ‘cannot comment on any cases in which an individual has been named’.
Cardinal Pell is due to give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse in just over one week.
He is currently in Rome and claims he is too ill to fly to front the commission, but will testify via video-link from Rome.
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