{"id":6670,"date":"2019-02-26T00:51:27","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T00:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/?p=6670"},"modified":"2019-02-26T00:51:28","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T00:51:28","slug":"most-senior-catholic-charged-with-child-sex-abuse-convicted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/2019\/02\/26\/most-senior-catholic-charged-with-child-sex-abuse-convicted\/","title":{"rendered":"Most senior Catholic charged with child sex abuse convicted"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 The most senior Catholic cleric ever charged with child sex abuse has been convicted of molesting two choirboys moments after celebrating Mass, dealing a new blow to the Catholic hierarchy\u2019s credibility after a year of global revelations of abuse and cover-up.<\/p>\n

Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis\u2019 top financial adviser and the Vatican\u2019s economy minister, bowed his head but then regained his composure as the 12-member jury delivered unanimous verdicts in the Victoria state County Court on Dec11 after more than two days of deliberation.<\/p>\n

The court had until Tuesday forbidden publication of any details about the trial.<\/p>\n

The convictions were confirmed the same week that Francis concluded his extraordinary summit of Catholic leaders summoned to Rome for a tutorial on preventing clergy sexual abuse and protecting children from predator priests.<\/p>\n

The jury convicted Pell of abusing two 13-year-old boys whom he had caught swigging sacramental wine in a rear room of Melbourne\u2019s St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral in late 1996, as hundreds of worshippers were streaming out of Sunday services.<\/p>\n

Pell, now 77 but 55 at the time, had just been named the most senior Catholic in Australia\u2019s second-largest city, Melbourne.<\/p>\n

The jury also found Pell guilty of indecently assaulting one of the boys in a corridor more than a month later.<\/p>\n

He faces a potential maximum 50-year prison term after a sentencing hearing that begins on Wednesday. He has foreshadowed an appeal.<\/p>\n

Pell had maintained his innocence throughout, describing the accusations as \u201cvile and disgusting conduct\u201d that went against everything he believed in.<\/p>\n

His lawyer Robert Richter had told the jury that only a \u201cmad man\u201d would take the risk of abusing boys in such a public place. He said it was \u201claughable\u201d that Pell would have been able to expose his penis and force the victim to take it in his mouth, given the cumbersome robes he was wearing.<\/p>\n

Both he and Chief Judge Peter Kidd urged the jury of eight men and four women not to punish Pell for all the failings of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou must not scapegoat Cardinal Pell,\u201d Kidd told the jury.<\/p>\n

Pell, who walked to and from court throughout his monthlong trial with a crutch under his right arm, was released on bail to undergo surgical knee replacements in Sydney on Dec. 14. Prosecutor Mark Gibson did not oppose bail, saying the surgery would be more easily managed outside the prison system.<\/p>\n

Kidd warned that the continuing bail was not a sign that the 77-year-old would avoid a prison sentence.<\/p>\n

The first four offenses occurred at the first or second Solemn Mass that Archbishop Pell celebrated as leader of the magnificent blue-stone century-old cathedral in the center of Melbourne. Pell was wearing his full robes \u2014 though not his staff or pointed bishops\u2019 hat \u2014 at the time.<\/p>\n

The now 34-year-old survivor told the court that Pell orally raped him, then crouched and fondled the complainant\u2019s genitals while masturbating.<\/p>\n

The other victim died of a heroin overdose in 2014 without ever complaining of the abuse, and even denying to his suspicious mother that he had been molested while he was part of the choir.<\/p>\n

Neither boy can be identified.<\/p>\n

More than a month later, the complainant testified that Pell pushed him against a cathedral corridor wall after a mass and squeezed the boy\u2019s genitals painfully before walking away in silence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t tell anyone at the time because I didn\u2019t want to jeopardize anything. I didn\u2019t want to rock the boat with my family, my schooling, my life,\u201d the complainant told the jurors.<\/p>\n

The complainant testified that he feared that making such accusations against a powerful church man would cost him his place in the choir and with it his scholarship to prestigious St. Kevin\u2019s College.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 The most senior Catholic cleric ever charged with child sex abuse has been convicted of molesting two choirboys moments after celebrating Mass, dealing a new blow to the Catholic hierarchy\u2019s credibility after a year of global revelations of abuse and cover-up. Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis\u2019 top financial adviser and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,1,51,35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6671,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6670\/revisions\/6671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}