AUSTRALIA
9 News
By Kate Kachor
An ABC journalist has claimed Cardinal George Pell’s lawyers demanded she destroy all correspondence between them or return it after refusing their “most onerous” terms in exchange for an interview with Australia’s most senior Catholic for her book on his role with the church.
Louise Milligan, an award winning reporter with 7.30, endeavoured to contact the Victorian-born Cardinal – who is now based in The Vatican – a number of times about the allegations of child sexual abuse against the Catholic Church and his role as one of its leaders for her book, ‘Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell’.
“I made several attempts to try and engage with him, through his office and his lawyers and he declined to take up that invitation except on the most onerous grounds, which included giving him the entire manuscript of the book. I’ve never heard that happen in two decades of journalism,” Milligan told nine.com.au.
“When we refused to do that his lawyers asked us to destroy the correspondence and if we didn’t destroy the correspondence they wanted us to give it back to them.”
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