9 April 2020
Sir:
The Church of England hierarchy would be advised to familiarise itself with the unanimous decision of seven High Court judges of the Australian Court of Appeal to quash the conviction of Cardinal George Pell (“Cardinal Pell’s conviction quashed by High Court”, CT, April 7).
The jury, “acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant’s guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted”. There was “a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof”.
In the case of the character assassination of Bishop George Bell, the evidence used by the Church of England hierarchy – which includes Archbishop Welby and Bishop Warner – was even more flimsy.
Let truth and justice speak above the shameful, ecclesiastical silence.
Yours sincerely
Richard W. Symonds
The Bell Society
2 Lychgate Cottages
Ifield Street, Ifield Village
Crawley, West Sussex
RH11 0NN
Readers outside Australia may not know that Cardinal Pell was tried for the alleged sexual assault of two choirboys, found guilty and jailed more than a year ago. An appeal at state level failed, and the case went to the High Court of Australia, where the full court of seven judges unanimously quashed the conviction on Tuesday.
During the year in which Cardinal Pell languished in prison, many doubts were raised about the veracity of the evidence on which he had been convicted. It seemed to many that Cardinal Pell was the victim of a hate campaign by police and others who were hostile to the Roman Catholic church after shocking cases of sexual abuse of boys by priests came to light during a Royal Commission into institutional child sexual abuse.
Activists committed years to trying to mount a credible case against Cardinal Pell. They gave it their best shot, including a massive anti-Pell campaign of vilification in the period leading up to his original trial – a campaign which evidently encouraged jurors and judges to convict him on the inconsistent (and in retrospect frankly incredible) evidence of a single complainant.
In the end, Cardinal Pell has been given justice as regards the accusations made against him, although his name has been thoroughly blackened in the process.
In Victoria – the State where Cardinal Pell was in office at the time of the alleged offences, and where he was originally tried, convicted and imprisoned – the Premier was unable to publicly accept that his police force and his courts had utterly failed an innocent man. He refused to comment on Cardinal Pell’s release. But instead he sent a message to all victims of child sexual abuse, saying “I believe you”. Of course he does. His only problem now is to work out who are victims (in which case he will believe them) and who are not.
Cardinal Pell saw justice on his lifetime. Bishop George Bell hadn`t the chance to face any of the shameful charges he faced postumously and the already decided conviction, that was even supported by the likes of Welby and others. Shame on them. Fortunately these charges were overruled.
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