AUSTRALIA
The Age
August 25, 2019
By Chip Le Grand
George Pell will take his case to the High Court, setting the scene for a final legal battle over the senior Catholic cleric’s child sex abuse convictions.
Sources have told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that Pell is determined to pursue his last avenue of appeal after receiving unanimous advice from his legal team that the dissenting opinion of Victorian Supreme Court Justice Mark Weinberg provided reasonable grounds to have his convictions overturned.
Pell has 21 days from last Wednesday’s Court of Appeal judgment to formally lodge an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court. It is likely that a short hearing to determine his application will be listed for this year.
If Pell is granted leave, it is likely to be a further four to six months before his appeal is heard.
It is understood that Pell’s special leave application will be made by Bret Walker, SC, who argued the cardinal’s case before the Court of Appeal and who has extensive experience in High Court cases.
The Court of Appeal dismissed Pell’s appeal against his convictions for the oral rape of a choirboy and the sexual assault of another at St Patrick’s Cathedral when he was Archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.
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