Pell seeks High Court appeal

Lawyers for George Pell are set to seek special leave to appeal in the High Court this week in what will be his last chance of early release after being convicted of child sex charges.

George Pell’s lawyers are set to seek special leave to appeal in the High Court this week. Picture: AP

Lawyers for George Pell are set to seek special leave to appeal in the High Court this week, in what will be his last chance of early release after being convicted of child sex charges.

The deadline for seeking leave is Wednesday afternoon and friends said the expectation remained that an appeal would be lodged. Pell’s legal team had 28 days after the Victorian Court of Appeal rejected his appeal against convictions over child sex abuse in 1996 and 1997.

He remains in the Melbourne Assessment Prison but has been given more opportunity to exercis­e and “remains in good spirits’’, one source familiar with the cardinal’s health said.

MAP is normally considered a short-term jail for prisoners while more permanent facilities are found for inmates.

However, because Pell is a child sex offende­r he has been judged to be at extreme risk of being assaulte­d by other inmates if he is released into the general prison community.

There is no guarantee the appeal­ will be heard by the High Court and, if it is, it is unlikely to be before next year.

It is common for High Court appeals to be lodged towards the end of the 28-day cut-off, principally because of the high-stakes nature of the application.

The Court of Appeal was split 2-1, with the most experienced criminal judge raising serious concerns about the County Court jury’s convictions.

The Pell team submitted to the Court of Appeal that Pell, 78, could not have sexually assaulted two boys in St Patrick’s Cathedral for multiple reasons including that there was not enough time, too many people were in the cathedral and he was always accompanied.

But the jury convicted him of the five charges, including oral penetration, with most offending occurring in one of the cathed­ral’s sacristies, with the door open, soon after Solemn Mass.

Pell is serving a minimum three years and eight months’, with a headline penalty of six years.

Bret Walker SC is expected to lead the case for Pell. While highly regarded, the Pell legal team will face an uphill battle for the High Court to overturn the jury and Court of Appeal.