[To see our complete list of accused bishops, click here.]
Auxiliary bishop of Melbourne 1987-1996; archbishop of Melbourne 1996-2001; archbishop of Sydney 2001-2014; elevated to cardinal 2003; Prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy 2014-2018. Retired October 2018, age 77. Died January 10, 2023.
Summary: Accused of child sexual abuse by at least nine men. In December 2018, Pell was criminally convicted of sexual offenses against two of his accusers, but in April 2020, after he had served thirteen months in prison, his conviction was overturned by Australia’s High Court. At least one other victim received a six-figure settlement in a civil case, and at least two others were granted compensation by the National Redress Scheme, which deemed their abuse allegations “reasonably likely.” Pell maintained his innocence of all claims of abuse until his death in early 2023.
Background
[For more information, see our detailed timeline.]
On 12/11/2018, Pell was convicted of one charge of sexual penetration of a child under age 16 and of four charges of committing an indecent act with or in the presence of a child under age 16. As detailed in the trial judge’s subsequent Reasons for Sentence, the cardinal was found guilty of perpetrating the crime of sexual penetration on victim J, two indecent acts with J, and one indecent act with R during an encounter with both boys in late 1996, likely December. The incidents reportedly occurred following Pell’s celebration of Sunday Solemn Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne, when Pell was Melbourne archbishop. The fourth “indecent act” charge related to Pell’s groping of J’s genitals several weeks later, possibly in February 1997.
On 3/13/2019, Pell was sentenced to six years in prison, with possibility of parole after three years, eight months. [See Judge Peter Kidd’s Reasons for Sentence.]
In early June 2019, Pell appealed the verdict to the Melbourne Court of Appeals, a division of the Supreme Court of Victoria. On 8/21/2019, the three-justice appeal panel announced it had dismissed Pell’s appeal 2 to 1. [See the Melbourne Court of Appeal’s Summary of Judgment and Reasons for Judgment, which includes the dissenting judge’s opinion, beginning on page 121.]
The cardinal appealed the ruling to Australia’s High Court, his defense counsel arguing that the appeal court’s judgment had “reversed the onus of proof.” In a brief but complicated ruling on 11/13/ 2019, a two-justice High Court panel neither granted nor denied Pell’s application for appeal. Instead, it ordered that both Pell’s request for appeal and his substantive argument for appeal be heard in a special sitting of the full bench.
In January and February 2020, both Pell’s defense counsel and prosecutors submitted written arguments to the High Court. The High Court’s full bench of seven justices held its hearing on 3/11 and 3/12/2020, with Pell’s counsel presenting its case first, followed by the prosecutor’s argument for retaining the appeal court’s ruling. The High Court then asked for further written submissions from both sides.
On 4/7/2020, the High Court issued its judgment. It unanimously allowed the appeal and “ordered that the convictions be quashed and that verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place.” Granting that the jury had assessed the complainant’s evidence “as thoroughly credible and reliable,” the Court wrote, “the evidence of the opportunity witnesses nonetheless required the jury, acting rationally, to have entertained a reasonable doubt” as to Pell’s guilt. Pell was immediately freed from prison. A brief Vatican communique ‘welcomed’ the High Court decision. It did not say whether it would now launch an internal investigation of the cardinal.
While the High Court ruling ended the criminal case involving the two teen choirboys, it did not preclude the possibility that the allegations would be considered again in civil courts. The father of choirboy “R,” who died of a heroin dose in 2014, said that he intended to sue Pell. This was expected to be one of several lawsuits that would be resolved in civil courts, where the standard of proof is lower.
Sexual abuse allegations by others against Pell, including two who were compensated by the National Redress Scheme
In addition to the alleged crimes for which he was put on trial, Pell was accused of child sexual abuse by at least seven others. One man reported his complaint to the church in 2002 [see the report on the allegation by the church-commissioned investigator, a retired judge]. Two others, Lyndon Monument and Damian Dignan, told Victoria police in 2015 or 2016 that then-Father Pell repeatedly molested them in a Ballarat swimming pool in the 1970s. On 4/2/2020, two other alleged victims appeared in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV program. Both said they were molested by Pell in the 1970s, when they were growing up in Ballarat’s Nazareth House, an orphanage run by the Sisters of Nazareth.
On 4/7/2021, the church settled a civil case for AU $350,000 with a victim alleging repeated sexual abuse by Christian Brother Gerald Fitzgerald, a notorious abuser, and by Pell, who he accused of groping him in Ballarat’s Eureka pool in the summer of 1977 or 1978, when he was age ten or eleven. The Christian Brothers apologized to the victim; the diocese of Ballarat, the other church entity held liable in the case, did not.
In August 2022, Victoria’s Supreme Court ruled against the church’s request to dismiss a lawsuit against Pell and the Melbourne archdiocese brought by the father of choirboy “R,” the alleged victim who died of a heroin overdose.
The National Redress Scheme, whose standard of proof is “reasonable likelihood,” as opposed to the criminal standard, “beyond a reasonable doubt,” has awarded compensation to two additional Pell victims. [See how the Scheme defines “reasonable likelihood.”]
In December 2022, the Scheme notified “David” that it was giving him AU $45,000 as compensation for his abuse by Pell and a Christian Brother in Ballarat. The alleged abuse by Pell occurred in 1975, when David was an eight-year-old in Year 3 at Ballarat’s St. Patrick’s Primary School. He was in the YMCA swimming pool in Ballarat, when Pell groped the boy’s genitals while tossing him into the air.
In August 2024, the decision-makers for the Scheme notified “James” that he would be receiving AU $95,000 in response to James’ report of anal rape by Pell in the 1970s. In a longform article published in February 2025 by the Australian news outlet The Monthly, journalist Louise Milligan reported that the assault occurred when James was around nine years old, in Year 4, at Ballarat’s St. Francis Xavier School, and then-Father Pell coached the school’s football team. James stole Pell’s cardigan one day, and Pell chased him into the school’s empty gymnasium. According to the written complaint James filed with the National Redress Scheme, Pell put the boy onto a small trampoline, ordered him to drop his pants, and then inserted something in the boy’s anus.
For a detailed chronology, see: Timeline of the Allegations and the Prosecution Faced by George Pell