AUSTRALIA
The New Daily
March 15, 2018
By Lucie Morris-Marr
Cardinal George Pell has been accused in court of alleged abuse during a water skiing trip in rural Victoria.
The Vatican treasurer, 76, whose committal hearing for multiple allegations of historic sexual abuse continued at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday, was alleged to have been invited to join a Catholic family for an afternoon when he was working as an assistant priest.
A family member said Cardinal Pell arrived with another priest at a lake in regional Victoria just after lunch and enjoyed a trip on skis behind the family speedboat before joining them for afternoon tea. His visit apparently lasted about two hours.
However, Robert Richter, Cardinal Pell’s lead barrister, questioned the father of the alleged male victim about why he did not mention Cardinal Pell’s name in a statement to Sano Task Force in 2015.
In heated exchanges, Mr Richter told the witness, who cannot be named, that the reason Cardinal Pell was not mentioned was because he did “nothing wrong”.
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