Cardinal must stand trial on sexual-abuse charges in Australia
MELBOURNE, Australia — Australian Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Vatican official to be charged in the Catholic Church sex-abuse crisis, must stand trial on charges alleging he sexually abused multiple victims decades ago, a magistrate ruled today.
Magistrate Belinda Wallington dismissed about half the charges that had been heard in the four-week preliminary hearing in Melbourne, but decided the prosecution’s case was strong enough for the remainder to warrant a trial by jury. The number of charges has not been made public.
When she asked Pell how he pleaded, the cardinal said in a firm voice: “Not guilty.” Wallington gave him permission not to stand, which is customary.
When the magistrate left the room at the end of the hearing, many people in the packed public gallery broke into applause.
Lawyers for Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic had argued all the accusations were untrue, could not be proved and should be dismissed.
Pell, Pope Francis’s former finance minister, was charged last June with sexually abusing multiple people in his Australian home state of Victoria.
The details of the allegations against the 76-year-old have yet to be released to the public, though police have described the charges as “historical” sexual-assault offences — meaning the crimes allegedly occurred decades ago.
His alleged victims testified in the first two weeks of the preliminary hearing via a video link from a remote location to a room closed to the media and public.
Pell’s lawyer, Robert Richter, told Wallington in his final submissions two weeks ago that the complainants might have testified against one of the church’s most powerful men to punish him for failing to act against abuse by clerics.
But prosecutor Mark Gibson told the magistrate there was no evidence to back Richter’s theory that Pell had been targeted over the church’s failings.
Since Pell returned to Australia from the Vatican in July, he has lived in Sydney and flown to Melbourne for his court hearings.
So far, Francis has withheld judgment of Pell, saying he wants to wait for justice to run its course. Francis did not force the cardinal to resign, though Pell took an immediate leave of absence so he could return to Australia to fight the charges.