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Cardinal George Pell walks free from prison after child abuse convictions quashed

The most senior member of the Catholic church ever to be found guilty of child sex abuse has walk...
Michael Staines
Michael Staines

08.40 7 Apr 2020


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Cardinal George Pell walks fre...

Cardinal George Pell walks free from prison after child abuse convictions quashed

Michael Staines
Michael Staines

08.40 7 Apr 2020


Share this article


The most senior member of the Catholic church ever to be found guilty of child sex abuse has walked free from prison.

George Pell has had his convictions quashed by the Australian High Court.

The 78-year-old spent just over a year in prison after he was found guilty of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys while he was Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996 and 1997.

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He was sentenced to six years in prison.

However, judges at the Australian High Court have now quashed that verdict, finding that there was not enough evidence to prove the charges.

George Pell Cardinal George Pell is seen in Rome in an archive photo from 2017 | Image: Insidefoto/SIPA USA/PA Images

In a statement Mr Pell said: “I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice.

“I hold no ill will toward my accuser. 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.”

The two-day appeal focused on whether the jury could have had reasonable doubt about his guilty.

Lawyers argued that he would not have had time to molest the boys in the five or six minutes immediately following a mass service.

The High Court statement said: "The high court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant's (Pell's) guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted."

The former Vatican Treasurer has been freed from prison after spending 405 days in jail.


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