Cardinal to appeal six-year sentence
ROME • The surviving target of Cardinal George Pell’s historical sexual abuse said he takes little comfort in the cleric being sentenced to six years in prison, because of a pending appeal.
The disgraced Australian cardinal was sentenced and registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life Tuesday after his conviction on five counts of sexually abusing two altar boys in Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in the ’90s.
One of the victims later died of a drug overdose, but his friend, now in his 30s, said he will not find closure until he knows the outcome of the appeal that Pell plans to launch in June.
“It is hard for me, for the time being, to take comfort in this outcome. I appreciate that the court has acknowledged what was inflicted upon me as a child. However, there is no rest for me. Everything is overshadowed by the forthcoming appeal,” the man, who cannot be identified, said in a statement read by one of his lawyers.
The father of the second victim, who was 31 when he died of a heroin overdose in 2014, paid tribute to the surviving victim, who was a childhood friend of his son. “I commend the young fellow who has come forward,” the father, who also cannot be named, said. “He kept it in for a long time and that would’ve been hell for him. Absolute hell. I want to give him a hug. He was a fabulous little kid. He’s a fabulous man now.”
But he described Pell’s sentence as “a disappointment” and is considering whether to sue Pell and the Catholic Church over the abuse.
Pell will have to serve a minimum of three years and eight months before he is eligible for parole.
“In my view, your conduct was permeated by staggering arrogance,” Peter Kidd, the judge in the Victoria County Court, said in handing down the sentence. He said Pell had shown no remorse for what he had done.
Pell was convicted by a unanimous jury verdict in December of orally raping a 13-year-old choirboy and molesting the boy’s 13-yearold friend in the late ’90s, months after he became Archbishop of Melbourne.
The 77-year-old cardinal will appeal his convictions on June 5.