{"id":1201,"date":"2020-04-06T05:55:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T05:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=1201"},"modified":"2025-09-29T14:21:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T14:21:44","slug":"australian-high-court-unanimously-clears-cardinal-george-pell-of-sex-abuse-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=1201","title":{"rendered":"Australian High Court unanimously clears Cardinal George Pell of sex abuse charges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a class=\"asset-img-link\" href=\"https:\/\/tomfaranda.typepad.com\/.a\/6a00d834525a2f69e20240a51e02d3200b-pi\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/tomfaranda.typepad.com\/.a\/6a00d834525a2f69e20240a51e02d3200b-200wi\" alt=\"Cardinal pell\" title=\"Cardinal pell\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 &#8220;where do I go to get my reputation back?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2020-04-07\/george-pell-wins-high-court-appeal-child-sex-abuse-convictions\/12048726\">George Pell freed from prison after High Court quashes child sex abuse convictions<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He had been accused of committing the crimes after he found the boys swigging altar wine in the priests&#8217; sacristy after mass in Melbourne&#8217;s St Patrick&#8217;s Cathedral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A jury convicted him in 2018 \u2014 a decision that the Victorian Court of Appeal upheld in a two-to-one decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today the High Court handed down its decision, granting Cardinal Pell&#8217;s application for special leave and unanimously acquitting him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &#8220;where do I go to get my reputation back?&#8221; George Pell freed &#8230; <a title=\"Australian High Court unanimously clears Cardinal George Pell of sex abuse charges\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=1201\" aria-label=\"Read more about Australian High Court unanimously clears Cardinal George Pell of sex abuse charges\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12900,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1201\/revisions\/12900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}