Cardinal caged for child sex abuse

MELBOURNE - Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic convicted of child sex abuse was sentenced yesterday to six years in prison for molesting two choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral in a . crime that an Australian judge said showed “staggering arrogance.”

Victoria state County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd ordered Pell to serve a minimum of three years and eight months before he is eligible for parole. The five convictions against Pell carried a maximum possible sentence of 10 years each.

“In my view, your conduct was permeated by staggering arrogance,” Kidd said in handing down the sentence.

Pope rancis’ former finance minister was convicted by a unanimous jury verdict in December of orally raping a 13-yearold choirboy and indecently dealing with the boy and the boy’s 13-year-old friend in the late 1990s, months after Pell became archbishop of Melbourne. A court order had suppressed media reporting the news until last month.

The 77-year-old denies the allegations and will appeal his convictions in the Victoria Court of Appeal on June 5. It was not immediately clear if he will also appeal the sentence.

or the first time in Pell’s many court appearances since he returned to Australia from the Vatican to face abuse charges, Pell wore an open necked shirt without a cleric’s collar.

In explaining his sentencing decision, the judge said Pell had led an “otherwise blameless life.” Kidd said he believed given Pell’s age and lack of any other criminal record, the cardinal posed no risk of re-offending.

The judge also took pains to note that he was sentencing Pell for the offences on which the cardinal had been convicted - and not for the sins of the Catholic Church.

Pell showed no emotion during the hour-long hearing and barely moved throughout. He stood silently with his hands behind his back as the judge read his sentence.

Pell signed documents that registered him for life as a serious sexual offender before he was led from the dock by four prison officers.

In a statement, one of Pell’s victims called the judge’s sentence “meticulous and considered.”