Two men claim Cardinal Pell abused them

AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Rebekah Cavanagh and wires, The Daily Telegraph

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 tonight that Cardinal Pell touched them inappropriately in Ballarat’s Eureka pool in 1978-79.

The claims are among several which the Herald Sun revealed in February were being investigated by Victoria Police’s Taskforce Sano.

We can now reveal the force referred a brief of evidence on Cardinal Pell to the Office of Public Prosecutions for consideration within the last month, requesting an opinion on whether or not to charge the world’s third most powerful Catholic.

But the Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion declined to give an opinion and referred the file back to the police, saying it was a decision for them.

The case spans four decades, with the Ballarat-born cardinal accused of abusing children — now adults aged in their late 20s to early 50s — between 1978 and 2001.

The two men who told the ABC tonight they had made statements to the police, say he touched them inappropriately in the summer of 1978-79 when he was playing a throwing game with them at the town’s Eureka pool.

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