George Pell says he was spat on, abused inside prison
Cardinal George Pell has detailed the moment he angrily confronted a fellow inmate for spitting on him during his stint behind bars and reveals he nearly gave up the fight to clear his name.
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Cardinal George Pell has revealed the moment he furiously confronted an inmate who spat at him while imprisoned over historic child sex offences.
Opening up about his time behind bars, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic told how he was caged at the “Toorak” end of one maximum-security prison and kept many inmate pen pals.
He also revealed how he was hated by many of his fellow inmates for being a convicted child sex offender and had considered giving up his fight to clear his name.
He credited a “straight shooter” boss at Melbourne Assessment Prison for encouraging him to persevere with his appeal.
Cardinal Pell spent 13 months in solitary confinement at Melbourne Assessment Prison and Barwon Prison, near Geelong, for historic child sex offences which were overturned in a High Court appeal in April .
In an article published by the American religious journal First Things, Pell reveals how he lived in an 8m x 2m cell, just wide enough for a bed, and had a reading lamp above his bed at Melbourne Assessment Prison.
His cell was located at the “Toorak” end of the unit, away from “noisy prisoners … who were often destroyed by drugs, especially crystal meth”.
Cardinal Pell told how he was spat on by an inmate who accused him of being a “black spider” due to his child sex abuse convictions.
“As I walked around the perimeter (for daily exercise), someone spat at me through the fly wire of the open aperture and began condemning me,” Cardinal Pell wrote.
“It was a total surprise, so I returned furious to the window to confront my assailant and rebuke him.
“He bolted from the front line out of my sight but continued to condemn me, as a “black spider” and other less-than-complimentary terms.”
After being placed in lockdown at 4.30pm each afternoon until 7.15am the next morning, Cardinal Pell was often “denounced and abused” by other inmates in adjacent cells.
“Most of the warders in both prisons recognised I was innocent,” he added.
Cardinal Pell said the hate he felt from fellow inmates helped restore his belief in the “existence of right and wrong, good and evil”.
“All of us are tempted to despise those we define as worse than ourselves. Even murderers share in the disdain toward those who violate the young,” he wrote.
He said he never felt abandoned by the Lord while in prison and spent his time praying for his foes and victims of sexual abuse.
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WATCH IN FULL: ANDREW BOLT INTERVIEW GEORGE PELL