Cardinal Pell A close confidant of jailed Australian Cardinal George Pell has said he thinks a desire for a high-profile ‘win’ by police may have influenced the decision to prosecute the Churchman.
Dr Pell (78) was found guilty last December of sexual abuse and sentenced to six years in prison. Judges will reveal on August 21 whether his appeal to overturn the conviction has been successful.
Fr Brendan Purcell – a priest of the Dublin Diocese based in Sydney, Australia who is a close friend of the cardinal’s – told The Irish Catholic this week that people are anxiously awaiting the outcome.
According to Fr Purcell, “there were three grounds to Cardinal Pell’s appeal by Brett Walker, SC, on June 5.
“The first and most important is that the jury’s verdict was unreasonable. This was because the evidence of 20 witnesses, which was not challenged by the prosecution, and which was opposed by the uncorroborated word of only one accuser, could not have enabled the jury to arrive beyond reasonable doubt at the decision they made.
“The second was that the cardinal did not make a plea of ‘not guilty’ the presence of the jury panel, which is required by Australian law.
“And third, that Presiding Judge [Peter] Kidd wrongly prohibited the defence from showing a video demonstrating the impossibility of the cardinal committing the offences he was accused of,” Fr Purcell told The Irish Catholic.
Verdict
According to Fr Purcell – a former philosopher at University College Dublin – “the second and third grounds are considered legal technicalities, and if either made his appeal succeed, he could face what would be a third trial.
“Only the success of the first ground, of an unreasonable verdict, would lead to the verdict being overturned and the release of the cardinal,” he said.
Fr Purcell said that he “heard a few days ago that the appeal judges have asked the cardinal’s defence for more details regarding the second ground, which could mean – in my opinion – that they may be trying to avoid declaring the jury’s verdict unreasonable – which many Australian lawyers and journalists, some by no means normally friendly to the cardinal – are sure it was. And at the same time, accept the validity of the second ground, without recommending a further retrial”.
Fr Purcell went on to explain his perception of the background to the conviction: “the Victoria Police are at present subject to a Royal Commission for their years of using a barrister, Nicola Gobbo, as a police informant while she was representing some of Melbourne’s most dangerous criminals”.
According to Fr Purcell, “the investigation will almost certainly lead to the acquittal of some murderers and drug kingpins, who will likely be awarded huge payouts for the deliberate corruption of the legal process by some of Victoria’s top police officers”.
Fr Purcell – who now serves at Sydney’s Cathedral ot St Mary – referred to reports that senior officers went against legal advice given to the Victoria Police that the case against Cardinal Pell was too weak to prosecute.
“I suspect that the desire for high-profile policing success, which the ‘Lawyer X’ case shows, may also have been a factor in the prosecution of Cardinal Pell,” Fr Purcell told The Irish Catholic.