AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
Rebekah Cavanagh, Herald Sun
July 27, 2016
CARDINAL George Pell has rejected claims by two men that he sexually abused them.
Two men, now in their 40s, came forward to detail to the ABC their claims that Cardinal Pell touched them inappropriately in Ballarat’s Eureka pool in 1978-79.
Another man also claimed he saw the cardinal exposing himself to three boys in the change rooms at the Torquay Surf Club in the summer of 1986-87.
The claims are among several that the Herald Sun revealed back in February were being investigated by Victoria Police’s Taskforce Sano, set up to probe allegations emerging from a state parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse.
Within the past month, the force referred a brief of evidence on Cardinal Pell to the Office of Public Prosecutions for consideration, asking for an opinion on whether to lay charges against the world’s third-most powerful Catholic.
Sources told the Herald Sun Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion had declined to give an opinion and referred the file back to police, saying it was their decision.
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