The 13 reasons why (according to his lawyers) Pell should be freed

EDITOR'S NOTE: The High Court overturned Cardinal George Pell's conviction for historic child sex offences in a judgment handed down April 7, 2020. In a unanimous decision all seven High Court judges found Victoria's Court of Appeal should not have upheld Pell's conviction. It found the evidence could not support a guilty verdict.

Lawyers for Cardinal George Pell say there are 13 reasons his trial jury should have had reasonable doubt and not found the 77-year-old guilty of sexually assaulting two choirboys at St Patrick's Cathedral in the 1990s.

George Pell arriving at the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning.Credit: Eddie Jim

The lawyers say the offences could not have occurred because:

1. The timing of the assaults was impossible. The victim initially told police both attacks took place in 1996 but prosecutors told the jury the second incident happened in 1997.
2. It was not possible for Pell to be in the sacristy a few minutes after mass when witnesses said they saw him go to the front of the cathedral to greet parishioners.
3. It was not possible for Pell to be robed and alone in the sacristy, because church officials always ensured the then archbishop was never left unattended.
4. It was not possible for the two choirboys to be sexually assaulted in the sacristy undetected.
5. It was not possible for the boys to leave a procession outside without being noticed.
6. Officials near the sacristy did not see either boy.
7. It was not possible for the boys to be absent from the choir room, after the procession, without someone noting their absences.
8. It was not possible for the boys to re-enter the choir room unnoticed.
9. The crimes attributed to Pell are physically impossible because he wore heavy, cumbersome robes.
10. The prosecution case that the second incident happened in 1997 was contrary to the victim's own evidence.
11. No one noticed the second incident when the victim said he was attacked in a busy corridor.
12. It was not possible for Pell to be in the corridor because he would have either been greeting parishioners or at the end of any internal procession.
13. Other people present did not see anything consistent with the prosecution case.