George Pell to find out on Wednesday if he’ll get special leave to appeal abuse conviction

George Pell is set to learn if he has a final chance to try and overturn his conviction for sexually abusing two choirboys.

Cardinal George Pell was jailed in March for sexually abusing two choirboys in the 1990s. Picture: AP

Cardinal George Pell will find out at 9.30am on Wednesday if he has another chance to try and overturn his conviction for sexually abusing two teenage choirboys or whether he will serve out the remainder of his minimum three years and eight months in jail.

Pell was convicted last year by a County Court jury of sexually assaulting two teenage choirboys at St Patrick’s Cathedral while he was the serving archbishop.

In August he lost his appeal against the conviction in the Victorian Court of Appeal in a 2-1 majority verdict.

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Pell’s lawyers lodged an application for special leave to appeal with the High Court in September.

The High Court will hand down its decision on Wednesday in Canberra without hearing oral submissions from the parties.

If they rule against hearing the high court appeal, Pell will serve out a minimum of three years and eight months’ jail, after receiving a head sentence of six years.

The High Court will hand down their decision without providing written reasons.

If leave to appeal is granted, it will likely be several months before the full hearing.

Lawyers for Pell lodged an application for special leave to appeal with the High Court in September, arguing the cardinal was asked to prove the impossible by two of the Victorian appeal court judges.

Bret Walker, one of George Pell’s barristers. Picture: AAP

Pell’s barristers Bret Walker SC and Ruth Shann said the two judges in the Court of Appeal who upheld­ Pell’s convictions “erred by finding their belief in the complainant required (Pell) to establish the offending was impossible in order to raise and leave a doubt”.

They claimed the judges mistakenly reversed the onus of proof when hearing his case and there was reasonable doubt about the existence of an opportunity for the attack to have occurred.

Pell’s legal team argued Justices Anne Ferguson and Chris Maxwell, referred to as the majority, examined each piece of evidence in isolation to determine whether the jury should doubt the allegations.

The lawyers claim this was an error in approach that “infected” the treatment of the body of evidence, which contradicted the choirboy’s account.

Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd QC in reply said there was no error in the majority decision and Pell’s legal team had failed to raise any important questions of law in his application.

One of the former choirboys gave evidence at Pell’s trials; the other died in 2014 from a drug overdose, which his family says was linked to post-traumatic stress disorder from the abuse.

The court heard the deceased boy had denied being abused before he died.

Pell’s application highlighted that the surviving complainant had received “psychological treat­ment” and that Pell’s team was not able to tell the jury this or obtain records of it.