Sky News interview: George Pell ‘wouldn’t be entirely surprised if police keep trawling for victims’

Cardinal George Pell has said he ‘wouldn’t be entirely surprised’ if police continued to trawl for alleged victims of sexual abuse.

Cardinal George Pell has said he “wouldn’t be entirely surprised” if Victoria Police continued to trawl for alleged victims of sexual abuse as reports emerge of an investigation into a fresh allegation dating back to the 1970s.

Cardinal Pell, in a Sky News interview on Tuesday night with Andrew Bolt, said Victoria Police had “advertised” for cases of abuse during their initial investigation and it was “a bit ironic” that he had been made a scapegoat for sexual abuse by clergy when he introduced Melbourne Response in 1996 to provide redress.

“I don’t think the Church has ever got enough credit for the fact that we broke the back of this problem,” he said.

“The offending stopped, not completely but almost completely, from the middle 90s.”

The 78-year-old was released from jail last Tuesday after being acquitted in the high court on five charges of historical child sexual abuse.

He spent more than 400 days in prison after being found guilty in December 2018, before the high court overturned the verdict.

Cardinal Pell said culture wars and his position as a social conservative had fuelled the debate and reporting surrounding his case.

“I’m a believing Christian and I have stated my views quite clearly on many cases in many cases,” he said.

He said the ABC was partly funded by Catholic taxpayers and he believed people had the right to free speech on views that differed from his.

“But in a national broadcaster, to have an overwhelming presentation of one view, only one view, I think that’s a betrayal of national interest,” he said.

Despite the evidence of one man being responsible for Cardinal Pell’s imprisonment, Cardinal Pell said he never felt anger towards the complainant, instead “a bit sorry for him”.

Cardinal Pell said he didn’t know the man’s motivation but said it was possible the complainant had mixed up an actual incident of abuse.

“I wonder whether he was used,” he said.

“I don’t know what the poor fellow was up to.”

Cardinal Pell spent months at Victorian maximum security prison Barwon and while he doesn’t doubt there were threats against him, he made some friends.

“Only time I heard prisoners taking the side of a priest convicted of paedophilia,” he said.

One of the friends is serving a sentence for murder but Cardinal Pell has concerns over the conviction.

“I don’t think he is [a murderer] and one of the things I have become a bit interested in is people who are falsely condemned,” he said.

The day of the High Court decision Cardinal Pell tidied up his cell: “In hopes I would get out”.

He watched the live report on Channel 7 and told Bolt that he took “great pleasure” in watching the disconcerted reporter when the convictions were quashed and it was a unanimous decision.

“When it came through, seven unanimous, a cheer came up from outside and then my two friends came knocking on the door and congratulating me,” Cardinal Pell said.

Cardinal Pell said he thought he had supporters in the juries for both trials before the County Court but his supporters in the second jury, which held out for four days, may have “just caved in”.

Despite the setbacks of the jury trials, which Cardinal Pell had expected to be hung or not guilty verdict, he said the lowest moment was after the decision of the Victorian appeals court.

“I never believed there was the remotest possibility that a couple of judges would not uphold my appeal,” he said.

NSW police reviewed the security arrangements surrounding Cardinal Pell on Tuesday afternoon following a growing number of menacing threats against Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic on social media.

Seven officers – including three plainclothes detectives – visited Cardinal Pell at the Sydney seminary he has been calling home since he was released from prison last week.

The police spent about 10 minutes in Homebush seminary, in the city’s inner-west, before concluding the site was secure.

The Herald Sun released details of a secret probe by Victoria Police into fresh allegations into Cardinal Pell dating back to the 1970s.

A spokesman for Victoria Police said the organisation would not be providing any comment in relation to these allegations.