Victims of sexual abuse by George Pell receive compensation under redress scheme

Two men abused by the late Cardinal George Pell in the 1970s have been granted compensation by the federal government’s National Redress Scheme, despite Pell being acquitted of separate criminal charges by the High Court in 2020.

One of the men was offered a payment just five weeks before Pell died, in January 2023, after it was accepted by the scheme that he was groped on the genitals by Pell at a public swimming pool in Ballarat, according to an investigation by the ABC and The Monthly magazine.

George Pell was a former archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, and a senior Vatican cleric.Credit: Dallas Kilponen

The man, who was just eight years old when he encountered Pell – who was archbishop of Melbourne and then Sydney, before being appointed by the pope to one of the Vatican’s most senior positions in Rome – received $45,000 from the scheme for the alleged abuse.

A National Redress Scheme report on Pell’s conduct said children could be thrown without touching their genitals, and that it was “not incidental touching”, which was contrary to community standards of the time.

The other victim received compensation after the scheme was persuaded Pell had raped the then nine-year-old student at Ballarat’s St Francis Xavier Primary School. The rape occurred in the school’s gym after the boy had stolen Pell’s cardigan, but the late cardinal was never charged over the incident.

In his complaint to the scheme, according to the ABC report, the man wrote: “I remember him saying ‘pull your pants down’ ... I thought he was going to whip me with his belt. He didn’t.

“It was very painful. I was bleeding from my bottom afterward,” the victim wrote.

The man was granted $95,000 in compensation from the scheme, which is capped at $150,000, and none of his account was disputed, according to the ABC.

The Catholic Diocese of Ballarat had disputed the men’s accounts of historical abuse, but under the scheme is liable to pay the redress amount.

Arnold Thomas and Becker principal lawyer Jodie Harris told this masthead she was aware of further incidents of historical abuse involving Pell.

“We believe there are other victims who have not found the courage to come forward in relation to Pell. Anecdotally, we have heard stories from clients, some who are potential witnesses, but have not yet come forward.

“But we know from previous cases that the church will fight these claims, which could put some people off,” Harris said.

She said seeking compensation under the National Redress Scheme often resulted in poor financial outcomes for victims of abuse.

The government scheme has a lower burden of proof than the criminal justice or civil court systems, and awards compensation on the basis that abuse occurring at an institution such as the Catholic Church was “reasonably likely”.

The scheme was founded by the federal government in 2018 in response to recommendations by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and was supported by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference declined to comment on Friday on compensation payments made to victims of Pell’s historical offending.

In 2017, the report by the royal commission found that a “catastrophic institutional failure” by the Ballarat Catholic Church to take action on cases of sexual abuse had led to more children being abused by its clergy.

The dismissive response within the diocese of Ballarat to abuse complaints spanning at least three decades was driven by a desire to avoid scandal and protect the church’s reputation, the report found.

Retired priest Father Kevin Dillon told this masthead there had been no meaningful change in the Catholic Church’s response to clerical abuse over the past 30 years.

“This will continue to rear its ugly head as long as the institutional church does not acknowledge the incredible damage that has been done on its watch, and in many cases, with its knowledge.

“Royal commissions and parliamentary inquiries have done what they can, but the missing link is the failure of all churches to face up to their individual and institutional responsibilities to victims and their families,” Dillon said.

Pell, who was the Vatican’s former financial controller and the most senior Catholic cleric to have ever been found guilty of child sexual abuse, had his convictions quashed by the High Court in 2020, following a two-year legal battle.

In December 2018, he was found guilty in the Supreme Court of Victoria of sexually assaulting two altar boys in the sacristy of St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996. That decision was upheld in the Court of Appeals, before it was overturned in the High Court.

Pell, who had maintained his innocence since being charged in 2017, said in a statement after the acquittal that he “holds no ill will towards my accuser”.

“However my trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church, nor a referendum on how church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of paedophilia in the church. The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not,” Pell stated.

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