Cardinal George Pell the ‘victim of a witch hunt’: Robert Richter, QC
CARDINAL George Pell was the victim of a witch hunt because of his perceived failure to single-handedly stop child abuse within the Catholic church, his lawyer argued today.
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FANTASY, nonsense, impossible: three words used today to sum up the historical sexual offences allegations levelled at Cardinal George Pell.
His lawyer Robert Richter, QC, spent almost two hours outlining his case at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this morning arguing to have all charges being faced by his client thrown out of court.
He argued Cardinal Pell, Australia’s highest ranked Catholic, was the victim of a witch hunt because of his perceived failure to single-handedly stop child abuse within the church.
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There was a public hatred for him as the face of the Catholic Church, and that hatred increased as he climbed the ranks of the organisation.
Mr Richter spared no one in his take down of the allegations against the Cardinal, slamming the police investigation, publicity around the case and the victims’ evidence.
Following a month long committal hearing magistrate Belinda Wallington must now decide whether there is sufficient evidence to support a conviction and if so commit the Cardinal to stand trial.
Mr Richter, who has filed an 80 page no-case submission with hundreds of submission points, told her there wasn’t.
“There has to be a sensible approach taken at committal,” he said.
“This is a situation in which your honour has to weigh up whether there is evidence of sufficient weight to support a conviction and that means evidence which is capable of belief.”
Mr Richter said the complainants simply could not be believed.
The Cardinal is facing numerous charges in relation to several victims, though the nature and number of charges has not been publicly revealed.
Mr Richer said the investigation into Cardinal Pell, that started without a complaint, was lacking with police automatically believing the claims of victims, including one from a psychiatric hospital, without properly investigating their accounts.
“It should be difficult to destroy and lock up a citizen unless there has been a proper investigation,” he said.
“We know that at the beginning and for a long period of time there was no investigation of the complainants story,” Mr Richter said.
He said the bulk of the charges related to a single witness.
The victim made “appalling allegations of very serious misconduct”, but Mr Richter said they “ought to be regarded as impossible”.
“The complainants are unreliable, the complainants have made prior statements that are inconsistent or subsequent statements that are inconsistent, their credibility has been damaged,” he said.
Mr Richter said other allegations were either “the product of fantasy or mental health problems ... or pure invention in order to punish the representative of the Catholic Church in this country for not stopping child abuse by others of children”.
“Cardinal Pell has been seen as the face of that responsibility,” he said.
Mr Richter said even if his client was committed to trial, there would be questions raised about whether he could receive a fair trial.
“What’s in the public mind is a mish mash of allegations and fantasy,” he said.
The public perception was fuelled by reporting he slammed as disgraceful, singling out ABC journalist Louise Milligan’s award-winning book Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell.
“He hadn’t fallen (when the book was published). He hadn’t even be charged,” Mr Richter said.
“When it became clear that charges were imminent in June, Melbourne University Press and Louise Milligan brought forward the publication date of this damning character assassination book,” he said.
“She (Ms Milligan) was out for fame and fortune,” he said.
Mr Richter said it would be a waste of public time and money to take the case further.
“There is suffering to be undergone not just by (the Cardinal), there is additional suffering to be undergone by people who have made complaints with no prospect of them getting up, because they are wrong.”
Cardinal Pell stood down from his position as Vatican treasurer after being charged in June last year and returned to Australia shortly after.
“In terms of an illustration of innocence we can go a bit further,” Mr Richter said. “What we have here is a situation where a Cardinal, who is entitled to diplomatic immunity ... comes voluntarily.”
Cardinal Pell attended every day of the committal hearing but was excused from today’s hearing.
Ms Wallington will hand down her decision on May 1.
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