Cardinal Pell’s appeal against conviction starts

Cardinal George Pell’s lastchance appeal against his child sex abuse convictions starts in Australia’s top court today, with his fate now in the hands of the country’s most senior judges.

The cardinal, 78, who is serving a six-year sentence for sexually assaulting two choirboys in the 1990s, is not expected to appear for the two-day high court hearing in Canberra, where his lawyers will mount a final bid to clear his name.

In December 2018, a jury found the former Vatican treasurer, who once helped elect popes, guilty on five counts of abusing the 13year-old choirboys at a Melbourne cathedral when he was archbishop of the city.

Pell is the highest-ranking Catholic Church official ever convicted of child sex crimes.

He was sentenced in March 2019 and lost a first appeal in August, a decision that saw the judges split in a 2-1 verdict.

The case pitted the cleric against a former choirboy victim now in his 30s, whom two of the judges found to be “very compelling” and “clearly not a liar, not a fantasist and a witness of truth”.

The third judge, however, found the man’s account “contained discrepancies” and there was a “significant possibility” Pell did not commit the offences.

The case relied solely on the testimony of Pell’s surviving victim, as the other

— who never spoke of the abuse — died of a drug overdose in 2014. Neither man can be identified for legal reasons.

The judges could quash the appeal immediately, or wait several months to hand down their ruling.

They could also send the case back to the court of appeal and drag out an already lengthy process even further, an outcome the father of the dead victim is eager to avoid.

“This process continues to take a toll on his physical and mental health,” his lawyer Lisa Flynn said.