Cardinal jailed for abuse
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has urged Australians to support survivors of child sexual abuse, as the nation absorbs the sentencing of George Pell for crimes against two choirboys.
The Catholic cardinal was yesterday sentenced to a maximum of six years in prison, with a nonparole period of three years and eight months, in Melbourne. He had been convicted of five offences, including the oral rape of a 13-year-old choirboy, committed in the 1990s.
‘‘I would just ask Australians today to get around those who have been victims of child sexual abuse,’’ Morrison told reporters ahead of the verdict. ‘‘Let them know we know it happened, that we want to help you be stronger and to survive.’’
Pell, who was until late February the Vatican’s treasurer, is the highest-ranking Catholic in the world to be convicted of child sexual abuse.
Cheers erupted outside Melbourne’s County Court as sexual abuse survivors and their supporters heard Pell’s sentence..
Abuse survivors packed the courtroom, while others sat outside, huddled around mobile phones and radios listening to the sentencing hearing, which was broadcast live.
Chief Judge Peter Kidds described Pell’s crimes as brazen, opportunistic and callous offending against two powerless boys.
Pell, 77, must serve three years and eight months in prison before he is eligible for parole after he was last year found guilty of orally raping one boy and molesting the other at St Patrick’s Cathedral in East Melbourne in 1996 and 1997.
When the detectives who led the investigation left court, they were greeted with three cheers for Victoria Police.
Cathy Kezelman from the trauma recovery-focused Blue Knot Foundation said the sentence represented the personal struggle for justice of many other abuse survivors.
– AAP, Sydney Morning Herald