This case has gone on for years and the charges were very sketchy with little or no backup. The High Court vote was 7-0 to dismiss. Pell has been a close confidante of Pope Francis. Of course the Cardinal has to be wondering “where do I go to get my reputation back?”
George Pell freed from prison after High Court quashes child sex abuse convictions
Cardinal Pell, 78, who has consistently maintained his innocence, was serving a six-year jail sentence after he was convicted in 2018 of abusing two choirboys in the 1990s, while he was the archbishop of Melbourne.
He had been accused of committing the crimes after he found the boys swigging altar wine in the priests’ sacristy after mass in Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral.
A jury convicted him in 2018 — a decision that the Victorian Court of Appeal upheld in a two-to-one decision.
But his lawyers went to the High Court, arguing the appeal court failed to take proper account of evidence that cast doubt on his guilt.
Today the High Court handed down its decision, granting Cardinal Pell’s application for special leave and unanimously acquitting him.
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