George Pell’s submissions lodged ahead of final appeal
George Pell is gearing up for one last attempt to have his child sex abuse convictions overturned, as his legal team files submissions with the High Court.
Law & Order
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George Pell has urged the High Court to overturn his child sex abuse convictions in submissions filed ahead of his upcoming final appeal bid.
The submissions, prepared by prominent barristers Brett Walker SC and Ruth Shann, were filed with the High Court in what is Pell’s final shot at overturning his convictions.
They argued his convictions risk a fundamental departure “from the defining safeguards of the accusatorial system of criminal justice.”
Pell is serving a maximum six year jail term for the abuse of two choirboys while he was the Catholic archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.
He was convicted of one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16 and four charges of indecent act with a child under 16.
Only one complainant gave evidence at trial, with the other dying some years ago.
Pell has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and is fighting his case in the High Court after unsuccessfully appealing to the Victorian Court of Appeal.
In the High Court submissions his legal team has argued it was not open to the jury to convict him based on their belief in the living complainants version of events.
They also argued prosecutors failed to challenge witnesses whose evidence established a plausible alibi for Pell.
“No matter how favourable a view was taken of the coinplainant, it was not open to the jury, acting rationally, to conclude that the prosecution had eliminated all reasonable doubt,” they argued.
“At the conclusion of the case, a remarkable evidentiary picture was left.
“A large number of undisputedly honest witnesses whose evidence was not challenged by the party who had the burden of proving the case beyond reasonable doubt – even where those witnesses gave effective alibi evidence.”
Pell’s legal team labelled the allegations “highly improbable … made decades after the event which contained features inconsistent even with the prosecution’s case.”
They also referenced a reported denial by the alleged co-victim that any such offending ever occurred.
“In these circumstances ‘belief in the complainant was not available as a rational basis upon which the jury could set aside the combined effect of the whole of the evidence,” they argued.
“Any conflation of the concepts of ‘belief and ‘elimination of doubt’ is an attempt to fundamentally depart from the defining safeguards of the accusatorial system of criminal justice.
“These safeguards protect people from the risk of being wrongfiilly convicted of crimes they did not commit.”
The High Court appeal is on track for a potential March hearing, the earliest date the case can come before the court.
By then Pell would have served more than 12 months of his three year and eight month minimum.
He has been held in solitary confinement since being remanded in custody because of fears for his safety.
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The High Court has flagged it will hear his appeal after taking the rare step of referring his application for special leave to a full bench of the court.
If he is successful Pell has asked the court to enter acquittals on all charges.
Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd, QC, has four weeks to file her response to Pell’s submissions.