George Pell’s defence when he first heard precise details of allegations against him
Police travelled to Rome as they needed George Pell’s version of events before laying charges over the 1996 incident at St Patrick’s Cathedral. It was the first time the Cardinal heard the precise details of the allegations levelled against him. Here is his response.
The first time George Pell heard the precise details of the allegations levelled against him was during a filmed record of interview with police at the Hilton Hotel at Rome Airport.
Detectives travelled to Rome two days ahead of the 19 October, 2016, meeting, armed with serious allegations levelled at the cardinal by a former choirboy.
Until then, Cardinal Pell was aware he was under investigation but had been told few details about the case against him.
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Police needed Pell’s version of events before laying charges over the 1996 incident at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne.
Pell read a prepared statement at the beginning of the interview. He had volunteered to take part, in a bid to kill off charges being laid.
“I have to rely on the law and my conscience, which say that I’m innocent,” he said.
“I intend to answer all the questions asked of me.”
Dressed in his clerical uniform, all black with a collar, he was relaxed with police.
They swapped pleasantries; Pell made a joke, they all laughed.
That changed when detective Sgt Christopher Reed, the man who would ultimately lay charges against the cardinal, told him for the first time the choirboy had accused him of heinous crimes.
“Oh, stop it,” Pell scoffed.
“What a load of absolute and disgraceful rubbish. Completely false. Madness.”
That Pell had found the choirboys in the sacristy after Sunday mass drinking altar wine then abused each of them was, he said three times, “completely false”.
Pell had appeared vague about his memories of the cathedral in the mid 1990s. It was, after all, 20 years prior, and a world away from the Vatican he now called home.
But it all came back to him vividly when presented with the serious allegations.
“This is in the sacristy, at the cathedral, after Sunday mass? Well, need I say anymore,” he told detectives. “What a load of garbage and falsehood and deranged falsehood.”
Pell said he would be able to easily prove the allegations were just not implausible, but impossible.
“I’d like just to say a word or two about the Sunday mass at the cathedral in Melbourne,” he said.
“For a start there would be hundreds of people present. I was always accompanied by a master of ceremonies. It was a big operation. The sacristy after mass was generally a hive of activity.”
Other claims were also unlikely, he said, particularly that the boys would have had access to altar wine, which was “always locked away” after mass.
“You could scarcely imagine a place that was more unlikely to be committing paedophilia crimes than the sacristy of a cathedral after Sunday mass,” he said.
After complete denials to all allegations, there was little else to do.
Pell, thanking police for treating him with courtesy, stated his innocence one last time.
“I’m not guilty as charged,” he said.
Pell didn’t give evidence at trial, the subject of much discussion among his supporters in the wake of the damning verdicts against him.
Church insiders believed he should have taken the stand but understood Pell was “heavily counselled” against doing so by his lawyers.
This 45-minute police interview was all the jury heard from Pell.
It is not common for accused people to testify at their own trial. The onus rests solely on prosecutors to prove criminal conduct beyond reasonable doubt.
However, the decision not to put Pell in the stand has been seen by some church insiders as the arrogant church deluding itself.
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WHAT PRISON LIFE WILL BE LIKE FOR PELL
HOW PELL’S ATTITUDE SPURRED ON HIS CRITICS
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Originally published as George Pell’s defence when he first heard precise details of allegations against him
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