Disgraced cardinal George Pell to learn his fate after appeal
Disgraced cardinal George Pell is set to learn his fate next week, months after he appealed a six-year prison sentence for child sex abuse offences against two choirboys in Melbourne. The ruling will be live-streamed for the world to see.
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George Pell will learn his fate next week, when a court decision on the disgraced cardinal’s appeal against his child sex abuse conviction is delivered on Wednesday morning.
The ruling will be live-streamed for the world to see.
The fallen cardinal hopes the judges will overturn his convictions and set him free after his legal team in June claimed there were 13 reasons why a jury was wrong to convict him of the sex crimes.
Pell, 78, was jailed for a minimum of three years and eight months after a jury found him guilty of sexual offending against two choirboys at St Patrick’s cathedral in the 1990s.
The guilty verdicts came at the end of a retrial, after an original jury was unable to reach a majority verdict.
Pell — once Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic and the Vatican’s third most powerful — vehemently denies any wrongdoing.
Chief Justice Anne Ferguson, along with justices Chris Maxwell and Mark Weinberg, have been considering his appeal since the June appeal.
Over two days of submissions, Pell’s legal team argued the jury’s verdict was unsafe.
If his appeal fails, Pell must serve at least another 3½ years behind bars before becoming eligible for parole.
MORE: THE RISE AND FALL OF CARDINAL PELL
TEN THINGS PELL HOPED WOULD PROVE HIS INNOCENCE
It comes after a letter purporting to be penned by Pell to his supporters was leaked on social media last week.
In the handwritten two-page letter shared on the “Cardinal George Pell Supporters” Twitter account, Pell compares his suffering with Jesus but says his faith continues to give him strength.
Melbourne’s most senior Catholic, Archbishop Peter Comensoli, also revealed yesterday that he visited Pell in prison about two months ago, saying he seemed “quite spiritually strong”.