Pell subpoenas material used in book

CARDINAL George Pell has sought to subpoena material from Victoria Police, the ABC, Melbourne University Press and an ABC journalist as he prepares to defend historical sexual allegations.

Lawyers for Cardinal Pell told the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court yesterday that almost all the documents they had sought had been released.

This year, Melbourne University Press published a book about Cardinal Pell written by ABC journalist Louise Milligan. It was pulled from the shelves in Victoria after he was charged.

The book was released on May 15 and contained allegations about sexual assaults in Ballarat between 1976 and 1980, and in East Melbourne between 1996 and 2001.

Cardinal Pell’s Rome office labelled the book “an exercise in character assassination”.