AUSTRALIA
The Australian
June 23, 2017
TESSA AKERMAN
ReporterMelbourne
@TessaAkerman
JOHN FERGUSON
Victorian EditorMelbourne
@fergusonjw
Victoria Police faces demands from survivors to act or explain its slow investigative progress into claims of sexual abuse against Cardinal George Pell.
Catholic Church officials are on edge over the possibility of Cardinal Pell being charged but Australia’s most senior Catholic remains insistent that he has done nothing wrong.
Police are believed to be winding up their investigations into the cardinal but senior church figures have yet to be told whether or not charges will be laid.
Peter Blenkiron, who was 11 when he was abused by a Christian Brother at school in Ballarat, said it was unhelpful for police to leave people speculating about reasons for the delay.
The Office of Public Prosecutions returned the second brief of evidence on Cardinal Pell to the police in mid-May, with officers as recently as this month still trawling through unsubstantiated allegations against the former archbishop of Melbourne.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.