Melbourne - Jailed former Vatican
treasurer George Pell will appeal on Wednesday against his
convictions for sexually abusing two choir boys in the 1990s and
if an Australian court rules in his favour could be released or
face a retrial.
Pell, 77, the highest ranking Catholic cleric worldwide to
be convicted of child sex offences, was jailed for six years in
March after being found guilty of five charges of abusing two
13-year-old boys at St Patrick's Cathedral while he was
Archbishop of Melbourne more than 20 years ago.
The trial judge said that Pell, a former top adviser to Pope
Francis, could die in jail. He is eligible for parole in late
2022.
He is appealing against his conviction on three grounds: the
jury's verdicts were "unreasonable" based on the evidence, the
judge erred by blocking the defence from showing a video graphic
in its closing argument, and there was a "fundamental
irregularity" as Pell did not make his plea in the presence of
the jury panel.
The appeal will be heard by three judges and will be
live-streamed on the Supreme Court of Victoria's web site. The
appeals court is part of the state's Supreme Court.
If the judges grant the appeal on the first ground, the
conviction would be thrown out. If the appeal is granted on the
second or third, then Pell could face a fresh trial.
Pell, who turns 78 on Saturday, was found guilty of all
five charges by a jury in December, following two trials. The
first ended with the jury unable to reach a unanimous verdict or
an 11-1 decision.
The outcome was only made public in Australia in February
after further charges of historical sexual offences, which had
been set for trial this year, were dropped.
Pell was the highest-profile conviction in a scandal over
paedophile priests that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church in
the United States, Chile, Australia and elsewhere over the last
three decades.
Pell's lawyer declined to comment on how Pell has fared in
prison.
American theologian George Weigel wrote in May in the
conservative religious journal 'First Things' that friends who
had visited Pell had been "cheered and consoled" by the
cardinal, who described his incarceration as a "retreat".
Pell was hand-picked by the Pope in 2014 to oversee the
Vatican's vast finances, but no longer has any position in the
Vatican.
He remains a cardinal and could only be dismissed from the
priesthood if the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith found him guilty following a separate canonical trial or a
shortened procedure called an "administrative process".
The Vatican launched its own investigation into the
allegations against Pell after his conviction was made public.