AUSTRALIA
The Australian
JARED OWENS
Reporter
@jaredowens
George Pell has urged a criminal investigation into the ABC and rogue Victorian police whom he alleges may be involved in a “conspiracy to pervert the course of justice”, amid new claims the Cardinal molested two boys as a priest in the late 1970s.
Last night ABC’s 7.30 reported the claims that Victorian police were investigating multiple allegations of child sex abuse by the cardinal dating back to the 1970s. Two former St Alipius students, Lyndon Monument and Damian Dignan, told the program that Cardinal Pell would abuse boys at the Eureka swimming pool in Ballarat.
Cardinal Pell, now a senior Vatican official, has issued a statement in which he “refutes all the allegations made on the program” and pleaded for “a fair go”.
“The ABC has no licence to destroy the reputation of innocent people and Cardinal Pell, like all those who have allegations against them that have not been tested by the Courts, is entitled to the presumption of innocence not immediate condemnation. He is entitled to a fair go,” his Rome office said in a statement.
The Cardinal’s statement drew attention to apparent “leaking of information and allegations by elements of the Victorian Police to the ABC”.
“This is consistent with previous patterns of improper and illegal disclosure of information from such sources to a variety of media outlets. Such information has in the past repeatedly been demonstrated to be inaccurate and unfounded,” it said.
“The Cardinal calls for an investigation to assess whether any actions of elements of the Victoria Police and the ABC program amount to a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.”
The Cardinal stressed that he did not wish to harm the men making the allegations.
“I bear no ill will and have no desire to cause them harm but what they say about me is not true,” he said.
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