MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
Reuters
March 14, 2018
By Sonali Paul
The pre-trial hearing examining charges against Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell of historical sexual offences re-opened to the public and media on Wednesday following a week of closed evidence from complainants.
Pell, 76, a top adviser to Pope Francis, sat quietly next to his lawyers during the open session at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.
The hearing, scheduled to last four weeks, started on March 5 to determine if prosecutors have enough evidence for a case to be committed to a full trial.
In the open session, Pell’s lawyers called as a witness the father of an alleged victim. The father, who can’t be named under Australian law in case it identifies the alleged victim, told the court he had no reason to suspect his son had been sexually assaulted. The allegation only arose after his son died of what he said was an accidental heroin overdose in 2014.
“I never saw, he never hinted that there was something going on,” the father, who described himself as a practicing Catholic, said via a video link to the court.
He said his son had been in and out of drug rehabilitation centers seven or eight times. The father said his son had said he got hooked on heroin because he enjoyed the drug and had never hinted that he had turned to drugs as a result of sexual abuse.
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