MANDALUYONG (PHILIPPINES)
CNN
June 5, 2019
By Hilary Whiteman
Cardinal George Pell, who was once one of the most powerful men in the Roman Catholic Church, could be released from prison this week, if an Australian appeals court overturns his conviction for historical sexual abuse.
Pell, 77, was sentenced to six years in prison in March for what Judge Peter Kidd described as a “callous” attack on two choirboys at Melbourne’s historic St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the mid-1990s, when he was archbishop of that city.
The former Vatican treasurer was found guilty of one charge of sexual penetration of a child and four charges of an indecent act with or in the presence of a child in the late 1990s during a secret trial late last year. The verdict was suppressed until February to avoid prejudicing a possible second trial, which did not go ahead.
Pell is expected to be in court on Wednesday when his barrister, Bret Walker SC, tries to persuade a panel of appeal judges to overturn his conviction on three grounds, including that the guilty verdict was “unsafe,” because the evidence could not have convinced a jury beyond reasonable doubt.
The proceedings will be livestreamed.
The other grounds are that Judge Kidd did not allow Pell’s lawyers to show a “moving” video during summing-up, which they say would have detailed their version of events, and that Pell was not given the chance to enter a not guilty plea in front of the jury, as legally required.
The two latter grounds are unlikely to prompt a retrial, said Jeremy Gans, a professor from Melbourne Law School, because even if errors were made during the trial, the judges would also have to find that they caused a “substantial miscarriage of justice.”
But Gans said the “unsafe” claim had a “good chance” of succeeding.
“The test in Australia for whether a verdict is unsafe is the judges have to decide for themselves whether they are left in doubt by the evidence,” said Gans, who has studied details of the case, except for video of the victim’s testimony, which was played to a closed court.
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