Timeline: The Criminal Investigation of Cardinal Pell

UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

2015

* The Victoria Police have been investigating alleged abuse by Pell since at least 2015. This two-year span was confirmed last month by Pell himself, at the beginning of his June 29 statement declaring his innocence.

A specialized team within the Victoria police called the SANO Task Force has been investigating the complaints against Pell. The police established SANO in 2012 to follow up on criminal complaints of child sexual abuse emerging from the Victorian parliament’s Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations. By the time the Inquiry concluded in November 2013, the national government had launched a broader inquiry, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse. SANO has remained active to handle criminal complaints emanating from the Royal Commission’s probe.

* In December 2015, the SANO task force asked the public to contact them with any information about child sex crimes at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne between 1996 and 2001. This was the exact tenure of Pell’s role as archbishop of Melbourne, where the Cathedral was his parish, seat of power and focus of activities.

2016

* In January 2016, Victoria police issued a public appeal in local Ballarat news outlets “for information in relation to allegations of sexual assault at the Eureka Stockade Pool, Ballarat East in the late 1970s. The male victims were aged 8 years old at the time of the alleged incidents.” During the late 1970s, Pell was a priest at St. Alipius parish in Ballarat, serving as diocesan vicar for education.

* On February 19, 2016, one week before Pell was scheduled to give evidence to the Royal Commission from Rome, the Herald Sun broke the news that Victoria Police were investigating multiple complaints that Pell himself had abused minors. The alleged incidents took place when Pell was a priest in Ballarat and archbishop of Melbourne and involved abuse of five to ten boys, now ranging in age from their late 20’s to early 50’s. The Herald Sun cited “legal sources” who described the alleged crimes as involving “both grooming and opportunity.”

Pell responded immediately. A statement from his office called the accusations “without foundation and utterly false.” He accused the Victoria Police of leaking the information in an attempt to embarrass him: “The Cardinal has called for a public inquiry into the leaking of these spurious claims by elements in the Victoria Police in a manner clearly designed to embarrass the Cardinal, in a case study where the historical failures of the Victoria Police have been the subject of substantial evidence.”

* On July 28, 2016, Victoria Police confirmed an ongoing investigation of alleged sexual abuses by Pell. In an email to The New York Times, a police spokesperson said, “Detectives are investigating allegations of historical sexual assaults committed in Ballarat East between 1976 and 1980 and East Melbourne between 1996 and 2001.” The email said the evidence had been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions for advice, but that “as with any investigation, it remains a decision for Victoria police as to whether charges will be laid.”

The police statement was prompted by a special TV report aired by Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Its program 7:30 revealed details about the police investigation. (See the program transcript.) ABC reporter Louise Milligan said she had obtained the information from “eight police statements from complainants, witnesses and family members who are helping the [SANO] taskforce with their investigation.”

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