AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Amanda Meade
Sunday 21 February 2016
A Herald Sun report claiming Cardinal George Pell is being investigated by police over child abuse allegations has sparked angry words between the paper’s top columnist Andrew Bolt and the reporter behind the exclusive story.
Bolt, who calls himself a friend of the Vatican official, labelled Lucie Morris-Marr’s report that police were investigating allegations of sexual abuse by Pell a week before he was due to appear before the royal commission a vicious and shameful smear which was part of a “sinister” campaign to destroy the cardinal.
But Morris-Marr, a senior writer on the Herald Sun, defended her story, saying it was not the result of leaks or a smear campaign but grew out of an old-fashioned investigation.
Pell has strongly denied allegations of involvement in child sexual abuse, saying they are without foundation and utterly false.
In his column in Monday’s paper Bolt said the Pell report published in the Herald Sun on Saturday was worse than “vicious and shameful” and the leak to the paper “stinks”.
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