Police planned to arrest Cardinal Pell at royal commission
POLICE planned to arrest and detain Cardinal George Pell in their custody when he returned to Australia for an anticipated appearance at the child abuse royal commission.
Law & Order
Don't miss out on the headlines from Law & Order. Followed categories will be added to My News.
POLICE planned to arrest and detain Cardinal George Pell in their custody when he returned to Australia for an anticipated appearance at the child abuse royal commission.
Police material detailed at the Cardinal’s committal hearing today revealed police planned the arrest in November 2015, when they expected Cardinal Pell to return to Melbourne.
Detective Senior Constable David Rae said police had a power of arrest in place and planned to arrest and interview the Cardinal following his commission appearance.
CLAIMS PELL ACCUSER SUFFERED ‘MELTDOWN’
Cardinal Pell’s appearance before the commission came in early 2016, but he appeared via videolink from the Vatican because of ill health.
The court earlier heard, a “Get Pell” operation was set up by Victoria Police at least a year before any complaints about Cardinal George Pell were made to investigators, his lawyer has claimed.
Details of Operation Tethering were made public for the first time today with police admitting the “intel probe” was established to determine whether there were any unreported serious crimes in regards to the Cardinal.
When asked whether the operation was a “get Pell operation” detective Superintendent Paul Sheridan said “I wouldn’t use those words but I guess you could term it the way you did”.
The revelation came as Cardinal Pell’s barrister Robert Richter, QC, asked magistrate Belinda Wallington to disqualify herself from further hearing the long-running committal hearing due to a “biased view of the evidence”.
The application was refused.
Cardinal Pell is facing numerous charges over historical sex offences and is in the final week of a month-long committal hearing that is expected to conclude tomorrow.
Magistrate Wallington will then decide whether there is enough evidence to commit the Cardinal to trial at the County Court.
The exact nature, or number, of charges being faced by the Cardinal have not yet been publicly revealed.
Several of the charges have been withdrawn because one complainant died and another has been deemed medically unfit to testify.
Today’s hearing has centred around cross-examination of Supt Sheridan who travelled to Rome to interview Cardinal Pell to interview before he was formally charged.
He confirmed Cardinal Pell was the subject of a dedicated police investigation for 12 months before a complaint was made.
Supt Sheridan also confirmed there were police efforts to try and revive a 2002 allegation against the Cardinal but the complainant did not want the matter investigated.
The court heard Operation Tethering commenced in March 2013 and the first complaint was received a year later.
It did not result in any charges being laid.
SEVERAL PELL SEX CHARGES TO BE WITHDRAWN
DETAIL OF PELL ALLEGATIONS REVEALED IN COURT
The court heard two men who made “minor” allegations against Cardinal Pell had also made serious allegations against other people — a teacher and a nun.
Supt Sheridan said he couldn’t say why the serious allegations were not investigated.
“Serious allegations … were put on the back burner and not investigated while minor allegations against Pell were,” Mr Richter said.
“Police officers who were looking at sex offences … did absolutely nothing about the serious allegations … instead of which they single-mindedly just pursued Pell,” he said.
The hearing continues.