George Pell to appeal sentence, claiming judge, jury got it wrong

Disgraced cardinal George Pell’s appeal argument is simple­ — the jury got it wrong, and so did the judge. He has now hired Barnaby Joyce’s barrister at a cost of $25,000 a day to argue for his freedom and reputation.

• Secret evidence may reveal how much Pell knew
• The interview that exposed Pell’s lie on abuse victim

Disgraced cardinal George Pell’s appeal argument is simple­ — the jury got it wrong, and so did the judge.

He has hired Barnaby Joyce’s barrister, top silk Bret Walker, at a cost of about $25,000 a day, to argue for his freedom and reputation in the Victorian Court of Appeal.

From the Rebels and Finks bikie gangs to billionaire Gina Rinehart’s children Bianca and John, Sydney-based Mr ­Walker is the go-to for complex cases.

He represented the former deputy prime minister in his dual nationality case.

Cardinal George Pell will be appealing the sentence that was handed down. Picture: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AFP

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The first ground of appeal is that the jury’s verdicts that Pell forced two teenage boys to give him oral sex inside the sacristy at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral­ are “unreasonable and cannot be supported having regard to the evidence”.

As in most historic child abuse cases, it came down to a he-said, he-said case with no DNA, medical or witness evidence.

The jury believed one of Pell’s victims, now aged in his 30s. The other died of a heroin overdose in 2014 having never admitted the abuse.

By its verdict, the jury rejected Pell’s legal team’s argument that the evidence was a “far-fetched fantasy”.

Pell has hired Barnaby Joyce’s top lawyer Bret Walker at a cost of $25,000 a day. Picture Gary Ramage

The jury never heard from Pell, which was his right and his decision not to go into the witness box cannot be held against him, legal sources said.

His appeal documents argue that “it was not open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt on the word of the complainant alone”.

It means the three appeal court judges will have to go through all the evidence where a key defence was how Pell was able to engage in oral sex while wearing his heavy, double-layered­ cassock and belt.

Pell believes Chief Judge Peter Kidd and the jury got it wrong. Picture: ABC

The second appeal ground is that Victorian County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd got it wrong when he refused to let Pell’s lawyers show the jury a 19-minute video, which they said would reinforce their case Pell could not have sexually ­assaulted the two choirboys as described.

It used coloured dots moving around a cathedral floor plan ­to depict witnesses.

Prosecutor Mark Gibson SC said that it was “a bit like a Pac-Man­ is moving around the cathedral­” and argued jurors may subconsciously believe it was an accurate reconstruction, not a depiction.

The final ground is lawyers have argued there was a “fundamental irregularity in the trial process” because­ Pell was not “arraigned­ in the presence of the jury panel” as required under the relevant Act.

The appeal has been set down for June 5 and 6.