Push to throw out Pell case

LAWYERS for Cardinal George Pell will apply to have his case thrown out when it returns to court next month.

The cardinal’s legal team is preparing a ‘no-case submission’ and, if successful, would avoid a trial by jury.

Cardinal Pell has vehemently denied any wrongdoing since being charged with numerous historical sex offences last June.

“I’m innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sex offences is abhorrent to me,” he said at the time.

“News of these charges strengthens my resolve, and court proceedings now offer me an opportunity to clear my name and then return to my work in Rome.”

The 76-year-old stood down from his position as the Vatican’s finance chief to fight the charges.

He has spent almost every day of the past four weeks at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence for him to stand trial.

Magistrate Belinda Wallington must decide whether a jury reasonably instructed could convict him of the offences alleged.

But she will first hear submissions from prosecutors and Cardinal Pell’s legal team, headed by Robert Richter, QC, when the case returns to court on April 17.

During the preliminary hearing, Mr Richter was highly critical of Victoria Police’s handling of the investigation.

It emerged that police had investigated the cardinal for four years before laying charges. In that time, plans were put in place to arrest and detain Cardinal Pell if he ever returned to Melbourne.

Yesterday, the last day of evidence in the four-week hearing, Mr Richter suggested public sentiment and political pressure surrounding the child abuse royal commission forced police to zero-in on his client.

It was a claim rejected by Det-Sgt Christopher Reed.