George Pell case: pain for all to see in Ballarat, a city scarred by abuse

With tearful eyes Holly Baker purposely marched to the gate outside St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat to attach a sign that said: ‘Stop victim blaming’.

Holly Baker hangs a sign on the wrought-iron fence outside St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat on Tuesday. Picture: David Geraghty

With tearful eyes Holly Baker marched to the gate outside St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat to attach a sign that said: “Stop victim blaming.”

The coronavirus has seen the church close and a security guard filmed Ms Baker on Tuesday as she secured white fabric to the wrought iron, which is covered in ribbons mourning the countless childhoods shattered by clerical sex abuse.

She wore a thin grey hoodie in the autumn chill and said she made the sign after Cardinal George Pell was acquitted of child sex abuse by the High Court of Australia.

“I just don’t think it's right for the victims that they’re still suffering and this just keeps getting covered up,” she said.

“I’m a victim of sexual assault, not in the same way, but I know how it feels to not be heard and not be listened to.”

The regional Victorian city, about 120km west of Melbourne, was ground zero for clerical sex abuse. It’s also where Cardinal Pell was born and served as a priest from 1973 to 1983.

On Tuesday the combination of COVID-19 and the cold left the streets desolate.

Ballarat man Phil Nagle, who survived clerical abuse, said he was shocked by the High Court acquittal. “You get a guilty verdict, then that’s upheld by the appeal court and then it’s overturned by the High Court,” he said.

“Why not just go to the High Court in the first place?”

Mr Nagle said his fellow Ballarat survivors would be hurting in the wake of the acquittal as he issued a simple message: “Stay strong.”

Peter Blenkiron was abused when he was a student at St Patrick’s College, which is just around the corner from the cathedral that bears the same name.

He said he was left speechless by the High Court’s decision and was now waiting for the public release of Cardinal Pell’s redacted evidence to the royal commission into institutional abuse.

“What will they show that the public doesn’t know?” he said.

Mr Blenkiron said he wondered how Monday’s decision would be viewed in 30 years.

“Truth is the child of time,” he said.