High Court gives George Pell the chance to appeal child sex convictions
With one last chance to clear his name after the High Court agreed to hear an appeal against his five child-sex abuse convictions, jailed cardinal George Pell could now apply for bail within days.
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George Pell could apply for bail within days, after on Wednesday winning a final chance to clear his name in his desperate bid to overturn his convictions for abusing two choirboys.
The High Court has agreed to hear an appeal against the jailed cardinal’s five child-sex abuse convictions.
On Wednesday, two justices referred his application for special leave to appeal to the court’s full bench for a hearing.
The decision means the legal drama that has been unfolding since June 2017, when Pell was charged, will continue, with the High Court hearing not expected before March.
Pell is serving a maximum six-year term for the abuse of the choirboys while he was the Catholic archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.
He has vehemently denied the charges, and took his case to the High Court after unsuccessfully appealing to the Victorian Court of Appeal.
At a brief sitting of the High Court in Canberra on Wednesday, justices Michelle Gordon and James Edelman ordered Pell’s application for special leave to appeal be referred to a full bench of the court “for argument as on an appeal”.
University of Melbourne law expert Professor Jeremy Gans said the referral was “basically the same’’ as a grant of leave.
Pell’s case was the only one of 22 applications for special leave to appeal before the court on Wednesday not to be dismissed.
His appeal will now go before five or seven justices of the High Court, and will proceed as though special leave had been granted.
“A referral (instead of a grant) is rare. And the court never explains why it does this,” Prof Gans said.
“It means that the court has not yet decided that the case is actually worth deciding, just that it’s worth hearing.”
#BREAKING: The Australian High Court has agreed to hear the appeal bid by Cardinal George Pell. The decision was handed down just after 9.30am in Canberra. #pell @theheraldsun
— Tamsin Rose (@tamsinroses) November 12, 2019
“The same five or seven justices will have to decide whether or not they want to take this case, which they’ll do at the same time they decide whether or not he wins.”
The court’s website crashed on the back of the decision.
Pell’s legal team will now lodge a formal appeal ahead of the substantive hearing.
In the coming weeks a timetable will be put in place by the court directing when submissions must be filed. They will all be made public.
If he is successful, Pell has asked the court to enter acquittals on all charges.
If he loses the appeal case will be dismissed.
There is only an outside chance the case could be sent back for trial. It is not a realistic possibility based on the material before the court.
Wednesday’s referral means the Vatican is likely to continue stalling its response to Pell’s convictions.
Despite mounting pressure, Pope Francis has refused to take any disciplinary action against Pell, who remains a cardinal of the Catholic Church, until he has exhausted all avenues of appeal.
The referral will also further delay the release of more than 60 pages of the final report of the child abuse royal commission.
Lengthy passages from the commission’s probe into the Ballarat diocese, where Pell worked alongside notorious paedophiles, have remained redacted pending the outcome of his criminal proceedings.
A spokesman for Pell declined to comment on Wednesday, given the matter was still before the courts.
The surviving choirboy complainant at the centre of the case did not want to comment on Wednesday. Lisa Flynn, on behalf of the father of the other choirboy, who died in 2014, said the High Court’s decision had “gutted” him.
“He was really hopeful that this would be over for him today because as the process goes on, it is extremely re-traumatising for him,” she said.
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Archbishop Mark Coleridge said the appeal “will prolong what has been a lengthy and difficult process”.
“But we can only hope that the appeal will be heard as soon as reasonably possible and that the High Court’s judgment will bring a resolution for all,” Mr Coleridge said.
QUESTIONS FOR THE COURT
1 Can belief in a complainant be used as a basis for eliminating doubt otherwise raised and left by unchallenged exculpatory evidence inconsistent with the offending having occurred where that evidence is not answered by the evidence of the complainant?
2 Is evidence of complainants of sexual offending to be assessed according to different standards to those applied to other witnesses?
THE PROPOSED GROUND OF APPEAL
1 The majority in the Victorian Court of Appeal erred by finding their belief in the complainant required the applicant to establish the offending was impossible in order to raise and leave doubt
2 The majority erred in their conclusion that the verdicts were not unreasonable as, in light of findings made by them, there remained a reasonable doubt as to the existence of any opportunity for the offending to have occurred
PROPOSED ORDERS
Appeal allowed
Set aside the order of the Court of Appeal and in lieu thereof, allow the appeal on and quash the applicant’s convictions and enter verdicts of acquittal in their place
POSSIBLE OUTCOMES
Pell acquitted and released from jail
Convictions stand and Pell serves his sentence
EARLIEST APPEAL DATE
March 2020
SHAMED CARDINAL NOW ‘PLEASED AND OPTIMISTIC’
When he was charged with heinous child-sex crimes more than two years ago, George Pell said he was confident of clearing his name through the courts.
On Wednesday Australia’s highest court offered him his last chance to do that.
The referral left him “pleased and optimistic” for the first time since he was convicted in December, according to friends.
After being charged, Pell said: “I’m innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me … court proceedings now offer me an opportunity to clear my name.”
Since then he has faced dozens of court hearings.
He had urged police not to lay charges, then hoped he could have them thrown out by a magistrate before going to trial.
When he was committed to trial, his legal team was confident he would be found not guilty, but he was ultimately convicted on all charges.
He was left gutted when the Victorian Court of Appeal dismissed his case, and had flagged dropping any prospect of a High Court challenge. But he was talked into lodging a final appeal.
Pell’s legal team had been working to prepare his appeal in anticipation of Wednesday’s decision. In their application for leave to appeal, his lawyers argued the Court of Appeal was wrong to dismiss his original appeal by a 2-1 majority decision.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne Ferguson and Court of Appeal president Justice Chris Maxwell dismissed each of Pell’s three grounds of appeal, finding the jury was right to convict him.
Justice Mark Weinberg dissented, and said he would have acquitted Pell of all charges.
Pell’s lawyers have asked the High Court to overturn the Court of Appeal’s finding and quash the convictions.
They argue that the majority decision of justices Ferguson and Maxwell incorrectly reversed the onus of proof, and instead forced Pell to prove his innocence.
In response, Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Kerri Judd, QC, argued there was no basis for a High Court challenge.
Sources close to Pell’s legal team believe the appeal could have far-reaching ramifications for child sexual abuse prosecutions around the country.
It is his last chance to overturn his convictions.
If he succeeds, he will be released from prison.
If he loses, he must complete his six-year jail sentence, but will be eligible for parole after serving three years and eight months of that term.
Because of concerns for his safety, Pell has been in maximum security lockdown since being taken into custody in February. He has been hoping to be transferred to a mainstream prison, but the concerns have prevented that.
STATEMENT FROM MELBOURNE ARCHBISHOP PETER COMENSOLI
The High Court has today allowed Cardinal George Pell leave to appeal his conviction and sentence.
Ours is a country that highly values the rule of law, even when different personal views are held. As this case comes to its concluding phase, many questions remain for the High Court to consider.
I acknowledge those who have experienced much anguish throughout this process, most especially those at the heart of the case. I seek to remain close to all involved in prayer and support, especially survivors of abuse.
Catholics in Melbourne have also experienced much distress, and I acknowledge the women and men, religious and clergy of the Archdiocese who remain dedicated to the care, respect and safety of all in our communities.
READ MORE:
PELL VICTIM DAD’S EMOTIONAL PLEA
I encourage and welcome anyone abused as a child or as a vulnerable person within the Catholic Church to come forward. I renew my commitment to work with them for their healing, recovery and well-being. I also recommit the Archdiocese of Melbourne to a culture that listens, and protects children and vulnerable people now and into the future.
We now await the process of the Appeal and I will be making no further comment until its conclusion.