Piers Akerman: ‘I know George Pell and he cannot be guilty’
Catholic Cardinal George Pell was found guilty of child sex offences last week. Sunday Telegraph columnist Piers Akerman reveals why he is absolutely astonished at the charges and sickened by the verdict.
Opinion
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It is now apparent that all Australians are required as a matter of course to give deference to self-proclaimed victims of sexual abuse, proven or not.
To merely question a claimant is to invite torrents of vicious abuse.
In the case of Catholic Cardinal George Pell, I confess to being absolutely astonished at the charges and sickened by the verdict.
Like all other Australians commenting on this case, I have not seen the complete video evidence provided by the victim — and apparently never will.
But we do know the first panel of jurors to witness his cross-examination was sufficiently unconvinced by the Victorian police prosecution case that its members could not return a unanimous verdict.
Were those jurors correct or was the second set, who only viewed a video of the testimony, correct? Juries can get it wrong and in this second instance I believe that was the case.
To those who have suffered sexual abuse, I offer my honest sympathy.
It has become the case since the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses To Child Sex Abuse that the alleged victim must be believed.
Where in the past the law was firmly behind the principle that a person was not guilty until proven guilty, it would appear those against whom charges of sexual abuse are now laid are guilty until proven innocent.
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The hideous bellowing of hateful epithets directed at Cardinal Pell’s counsel Robert Richter, QC by some at the start of Cardinal Pell’s trial, and whenever he subsequently appeared, showed how degraded public debate of this issue has become.
To his credit, Chief Judge Peter Kidd admonished the belligerents, saying they were attacking the court.
But even those who provided references for the Cardinal since his conviction with first-hand knowledge of his character have been vilified.
There were thousands of instances of institutional sexual abuse and the royal commission’s cost of $342.3 million (under budget) was definitely worthwhile.
To provide redress to the 65,000 victims of institutional child abuse in Australia will cost an estimated $4.3 billion, but whether any amount could be sufficient to recompense those who have suffered — be they victims or parents who have lost children through suicide or drug addiction — is questionable.
GEORGE PELL’S REFERENCES:
But I believe many in the media were determined to make George Pell the scapegoat for the sins of the Catholic Church — and determined to vilify him for his outspoken conservatism, particularly his scepticism about global warming and his stance against socialism.
Further, I don’t believe it was practically possible for him to have assaulted the two choirboys who apparently “nicked off” without arousing any suspicion to steal some altar wine and later rejoined their fellow choristers after the attacks but without mentioning them, at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral.
The evidence, believed by the jurors, would have the then-archbishop disappearing from the front of the cathedral where he greeted parishioners after mass, returning through the cathedral unremarked and forcing himself upon the two youngsters in an antechamber with the door open to frequent passers-by, somehow managing to produce his penis from beneath a religious garment which had no opening.
An animation illustrating the timeline of these events was not permitted to be shown to the jurors, one of the points made in the appeal lodged last week. Further evidence, rejected by the jurors, was that the archbishop was at all times accompanied by an assistant or assistants.
The mother of the second chorister, now dead, said he told her he was never the victim of sexual abuse, although his father says he will launch a civil suit for damages.
Many in the media were determined to make George Pell the scapegoat for the sins of the Catholic Church
The other two elements of the appeal are that the verdicts are unreasonable because on the whole of the evidence, including unchallenged exculpatory evidence from more than 20 Crown witnesses, it was not open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt on the word of the complainant alone, and that there was a fundamental irregularity in the trial process because the accused was not arraigned in the presence of the jury panel.
In the court of public opinion, swayed by the unrelenting campaign by the former Fairfax media and the ABC, the Cardinal was guilty before he was ever charged, but I believe the claims were, as he said in his interview with Victorian police, “absolute and disgraceful rubbish” and “pure fantasy”.
“The most rudimentary interview of staff and those who were choirboys … would confirm that the allegations are fundamentally improbable and most certainly false,” he said.
I have known George Pell for more than 25 years. I have found him to be a blunt advocate for conservative values, a supporter of the Western tradition so hated by self-loathing academics and the green-left society they subscribe to.
I also know he has shown extraordinary compassion on a deeply personal level to parents of abuse victims and members of his congregation.
I do not believe the man I know capable of the crimes of which he has been found guilty.