What the public didn’t see during George Pell’s sentencing
As the world watched a live feed of George Pell being jailed for six years this morning, journalists inside the courtroom saw something different.
Convicted paedophile Cardinal George Pell was without his signature clerical collar when he walked into the Victorian County Court at 10am today flanked by uniformed officers.
He limped, assisted by a black cane but the white strip that usually adorns his neck was absent for the first time in 50 years.
He sat with his beige jacket still buttoned up and kept his hands in his lap for an hour as Chief Judge Peter Kidd read through graphic details of his offending.
Pell, 77, twiddled his thumbs, ran his fingers through his grey hair and stared straight ahead, past the 70-odd members of the public gallery that included family members of his victims, a large media contingent and his legal team.
After 70 minutes, the man who sexually abused two 13-year-old choirboys at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996 hauled himself up when he was asked to stand.
The frail former archbishop of the prominent Melbourne Catholic institution, who recently had two knee reconstructions, had to reach for the bench in front of him for assistance to stand.
Then he listened, stone-faced, as Judge Kidd told him he would spend at least three years and eight months of a six-year sentence behind bars.
There was no cheering in the courtroom. Just silence as Pell was told to sit for one last humiliating procedure. Pell waited as a barrister brought to him paperwork that required his signature. He signed his name on a document that added him to Australia’s sex offender register for life.
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Pell stood and bowed to Judge Kidd before he was led away.
He never once showed any emotion despite the very real chance he won’t live to see freedom again.
Outside court, where victims of sexual abuse had gathered since before dawn, there were tears and loud cheers.
Judge Kidd was never gentle on the former senior Vatican official. He told Pell “you may not live to be released from prison”.
He told Pell his offending — which included one count of sexual penetration against a child and four counts of sexual misconduct against a child — were “graphic” and “perverted”.
Judge Kidd said there was “a degree of venom” and “a nasty element” to what he did. He rejected the notion put by Pell’s legal team that the former archbishop did not abuse his position of power over the boys.
But he also told Pell he would receive no special treatment because of his status.
“You are a member of the community like any other,” Judge Kidd told him.
Robert Richter QC, the lawyer who was roundly criticised and later apologised for referring to the sexual penetration of one of Pell’s victims as “plain and vanilla”, stood inside a tight circle of police officers outside elevators when the hearing concluded.
The father of Pell’s dead victim spoke to reporters on the steps of the courthouse about the importance of Pell’s other victim finding the courage to speak up, more than two decades after the offending.
“I’m really appreciative and thankful he did come forward,” he said.
It’s not quite the end of a long and painful chapter. Pell will appeal the sentence in the Victorian Supreme Court in the coming months.
Rohan.smith1@news.com.au | @ro_smith
