MELBOURNE, Australia — An Australian court on Wednesday upheld the sexual abuse conviction of Cardinal George Pell, the highest-ranking Roman Catholic leader ever found guilty in a criminal court in the church’s child sex abuse crisis.

The cardinal, 78, once an adviser to Pope Francis, was sentenced to six years in prison in March.

“He will continue to serve his sentence,” said Chief Justice Anne Ferguson of the Supreme Court of the state of Victoria in Melbourne, who presided over the case with two other top judges.

Cardinal Pell was found guilty in December of molesting two 13-year-old boys after a Sunday Mass in 1996 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne, and groping one of them again months later. A gag order meant the verdict was not unsealed until February, after a second trial involving Cardinal Pell was canceled.

The case has garnered broad attention both for its secrecy and the precedent it set. Abuse survivors had hailed the conviction as proof that judicial systems can hold even the most senior prelates accountable in the global child sexual abuse scandal that has stained the church’s image. </s> MELBOURNE: Former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell lost an appeal against his conviction for sexually abusing two 13-year-old choir boys and will remain in prison for at least another three years, an Australian court ruled on Wednesday.

Pell, the highest ranking Catholic worldwide to be convicted of child sex offenses, was sentenced in March to six years in jail after being found guilty on five charges of abusing the two boys at St. Patrick’s Cathedral while he was Archbishop of Melbourne in the late 1990s.

Supreme Court of Victoria Chief Justice Anne Ferguson said on Wednesday that two of the three judges hearing Pell’s appeal “decided that it was open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Cardinal Pell was guilty of the offenses charged” and rejected his appeal.

The jury in the trial heard testimony from a victim who described how Pell had exposed himself to the two boys, fondled their genitals and masturbated and forced one boy to perform a sex act on him. The other victim died in 2014.

“I am grateful for a legal system that everyone can believe in, where everybody is equal before the law and no one is above the law,” the surviving choir boy, now in his 30s, said in a statement read out by his lawyer, Vivian Waller of Waller Legal.

“The criminal process has been stressful. The journey has taken me to places that, in my darkest moments, I feared I could not return from,” he said in the statement.

 Under the terms of his sentencing, Pell will be eligible for parole in October 2022, when he will be 81.

“Cardinal Pell is obviously disappointed with the decision today,” his spokeswoman, Katrina Lee, said in a statement, adding that he maintained his innocence.

She said his legal team was examining the judgment to determine whether to lodge a special leave application to the High Court of Australia to hear an appeal. Pell has 28 days to file the application.

 There was no immediate comment from the Vatican.

Pell appealed his conviction to Victoria’s Court of Appeal on three grounds, but mainly on the argument that the jury’s verdict was unreasonable based on the evidence at the trial.

 However the court ruled in a 2-1 judgment that the conviction was reasonable, with two judges saying the surviving victim was a “compelling witness, was clearly not a liar, was not a fantasist and was a witness of truth.”

“As might have been expected, there were some things which he could remember and many things which he could not. And his explanations of why that was so had the ring of truth,” said the two judges.

 In contrast they said the evidence by people supporting Pell varied in quality and consistency.

 They dismissed Pell’s argument that sexual abuse would have been physically impossible due to his heavy robes, saying “the robes were capable of being maneuvered in a way that might be described as being moved or pulled to one side or pulled apart.”

Outside the court in Melbourne, small groups of activists and victims of abuse cheered once they heard the verdict.

“Here we have today in our court, in Victoria, the Supreme Court, saying, ‘we believe the victim and we uphold the jury’s verdict’,” Chrissie Foster, a prominent advocate for victims who has followed the case, told reporters.

“No one is above the law,” she said.

The pope has previously said he would wait for Australian civil justice to take its course before commenting on the case publicly.

Pell is still a Cardinal in the Catholic Church. Even if he resigns as a cardinal, he would still be a priest.

 Before he could be dismissed from the priesthood, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) would have to find him guilty following a separate canonical trial or abbreviated procedure, known as an “administrative process.”

The CDF has been looking into the accusations against Pell since his conviction in Australia.

 Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the courts had done their job and the justice system must be respected. He also said he expected Pell would lose his Australian honors.

Pell was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2005 and awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001.

 Pell’s legal team had appealed his conviction on three grounds, but the three appeal judges only permitted the unreasonable verdict argument to be heard.

The dissenting view from Justice Mark Weinberg said the victim “was inclined to embellish aspects of his account” and he said the evidence contained enough discrepancies and inadequacies to cause him to doubt Pell’s guilt. Weinberg said that in his view the convictions could not stand.

Pell’s case has attracted global attention as it brought a growing crisis of sexual abuse in the Catholic church spanning scandals in the United States, Chile and Germany right to the heart of the papal administration.

The Australian judges said Pell should not be made a “scapegoat for any perceived failings of the Catholic church nor for any failure in relation to child sexual abuse by other clergy.” They said his conviction and sentence was not vindication of the trauma suffered by other victims of abuse.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, the Catholic church’s top body in Australia, said it accepted the court’s decision and acknowledged the pain that those abused by clergy have experienced through Pell’s trials and appeal. </s> Cardinal George Pell's conviction for sexually assaulting two choirboys was upheld by an Australian court on Monday.

The 78-year-old former Vatican treasurer — the most senior Catholic official to be convicted of sexually abusing children — will continue to serve his 6-year prison sentence. He is not eligible for parole until he is 81.

A jury in December found Pell guilty of all five charges related to sexually assaulting the two boys at a Melbourne church in 1996.

'He is not a scapegoat'

Pell's lawyers had argued at an appeal hearing that the unanimous verdicts in December were "unsatisfactory" and unreasonable because the jury did not have sufficient evidence to find the cardinal guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But in the end, they failed to convince the majority of the appeals court.

The court rejected the appeal with a two-to-one ruling, with the majority writing they agreed it "was open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt Cardinal Pell was guilty as charged".

Read more: After Pell verdict, the Catholic Church must reform

Supreme Court of Victoria Chief Justice Anne Ferguson read out the summary, saying, "Having reviewed the whole of the evidence, two of the judges of the court of appeal ... have decided that it was open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Cardinal Pell was guilty of the offenses charged."

"Again, as the trial judge observed, he is not to be made a scapegoat for any perceived failings of the Catholic Church, nor for any failure in relation to child sexual abuse by other clergy," she said.

Pell's lawyers may still challenge the Victoria state Court of Appeal's decision in Australia's highest court. </s> An Australian court on Wednesday sentenced former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell to six years in jail for sexually abusing two choir boys in a Melbourne cathedral in 1996, Reuters reported. The 77-year-old is the highest ranking Catholic priest to be convicted of child sex offences and has also faced allegations that he covered up complaints of child sexual abuse by priests.

Pell was held guilty in December. He has maintained his innocence and has filed an appeal on three grounds, which will be heard in June.

“In my view, your conduct was permeated by staggering arrogance,” County Court of Victoria Chief Judge Peter Kidd said in the sentencing. “Viewed overall, I consider your moral culpability across both episodes to be high.”

Pell was ordered to sign the sex offender register and was sentenced to a minimum of three years and eight months in jail, AFP reported. You “may not live to be released from prison” the judge told the priest, accusing him of a “brazen and forceful sexual attack on the two victims.” The cardinal faced a maximum 50 years in prison for the five charges.

Prosecutors accused Pell of forcing the boys, whom he found drinking communion wine in a cathedral room at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne, into “indecent acts”. Pell then was archbishop of Melbourne. He allegedly abused one of the boys in 1997 again. One of the accusers died in 2014 of an accidental heroin overdose, having never disclosed the abuse.

However, the judge said Pell was “not to be made a scapegoat for any failings or perceived failings of the Catholic Church”. His appeal has been scheduled for a hearing on June 5 and 6.

“A small amount of justice has been done today,” an advocate for the victims said outside the court. “I don’t think six years is long enough.” </s> Cardinal George Pell will learn the outcome of his appeal as the Supreme Court of Victoria hands down its ruling.

The former Archbishop of Sydney and Melbourne was sentenced to six years in prison, to serve a minimum of three years and eight months.

In June, he appealed the guilty verdict, but not the sentence.

READ MORE: All the possible outcomes from the appeal and what they mean for Pell </s> The most senior Catholic to be convicted of child sex abuse was sentenced in an Australian court on Wednesday to 6 years in prison for molesting two choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral more than 20 years ago.

Victoria state County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd on Wednesday ordered Cardinal George Pell to serve a minimum of 3 years and 8 months before he is eligible for parole. Each of the five convictions against Pell carried a maximum possible sentence of 10 years each.

"In my view, your conduct was permeated by staggering arrogance," Kidd said in handing down the sentence.

Pope Francis' former finance minister had been convicted by a unanimous jury verdict in December of orally raping a 13-year-old choirboy and indecently dealing with the boy and the boy's 13-year-old friend in the late 1990s, months after Pell became archbishop of Melbourne. A court order had suppressed media reporting the news until last month.

The 77-year-old denies the allegations and will appeal his convictions in the Victoria Court of Appeal on June 5.

In explaining his sentencing decision, the judge said Pell had led an "otherwise blameless life." Kidd said he believed given Pell's age and lack of any other criminal record, the cardinal posed no risk of re-offending.

The judge also took pains to note that he was sentencing Pell for the offenses on which the cardinal had been convicted — and not for the sins of the Catholic Church.

"As I directed the jury who convicted you in this trail, you are not to be made a scapegoat for any failings or perceived failings of the Catholic Church," Kidd said.

But the judge also noted that Pell had abused his position of power and had shown no remorse for his crimes. Kidd described the assaults as egregious, degrading and humiliating to the victims.

After centuries of impunity, cardinals from Australia to Chile and points in between are facing justice in both the Vatican and government courts for their own sexual misdeeds or for having shielded abusers under their watch.

Last week, France's senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, was convicted of failing to report a known pedophile priest to police. Barbarin was given a six-month suspended sentence.

Pope Francis last month defrocked the onetime leader of the American church after an internal investigation determined Cardinal Theodore McCarrick sexually molested children and adult men. It was the first time a cardinal had been defrocked over the child abuse scandal.

One of Pell's victims died of a heroin overdose in 2014 at the age of 31 without ever reporting the abuse.

The survivor made a statement against Pell the following year to a police task force set up to investigate allegations that arose from a state parliamentary inquiry into handling of child abuse by religious and other nongovernment organizations. The task force also investigates allegations made to a similar national inquiry, called the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Pell gave evidence by video link from Rome to the royal commission, the nations' highest level of inquiry, in 2016 about his time as a church leader in Melbourne and in his hometown of Ballarat.

The four-year royal commission found in its 2017 report that the Melbourne Archdiocese had ignored or covered up allegations of child abuse by seven priests in a bid to protect the church's reputation and avoid scandal.

The royal commission was critical of Pell's predecessor in Melbourne, Archbishop Frank Little, who died in 2008. It made no findings against Pell, saying in a redacted report that it would not publish information that could "prejudice current or future criminal or civil proceedings."

Australian police interviewed Pell about the survivor's allegations in a Rome hotel in 2016. Pell described the allegations at the time as "vile and disgusting conduct" that went against everything he believed in.

Pell voluntarily returned to Australia in 2017 to face an array of child abuse charges, most of which have since been dropped. The full details of those allegations were suppressed by court orders.

Pell was once the highest-ranking Catholic in Australia's second-largest city, where he is now a prisoner held in protective security. Pedophiles such as Pell are typically separated from the main prison populations in Australia.

Pell was 55 years old and had recently established a compensation plan for Melbourne's victims of clergy abuse when he abused the two boys at St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1996. The survivor testified that Pell had walked in on the boys swigging altar wine in a back room after a Sunday Mass.

More than a month later, Pell abused the survivor again, squeezing the boy's genitals as they passed in a cathedral corridor after a Mass. </s> Cardinal George Pell, Former Vatican Official, Sentenced To 6 Years In Prison

Australian Cardinal George Pell, 77, a former leading Vatican official who last month was convicted of sexually abusing two boys, has been sentenced to six years in prison. He will be eligible for parole after three years and eight months.

During the sentencing hearing, Victoria state County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd acknowledged the disgraced cleric may not live to serve the full sentence.

"I am conscious that the term of imprisonment, which I am about to impose upon you, carries with it a real, as distinct from theoretical, possibility that you may not live to be released from prison," Kidd said to Pell.

The prospect of facing jail at Pell's advanced age "must be an awful state of affairs," Kidd added.

Pell was convicted in December of five sexual offenses committed against two 13-year-old choirboys during an incident in 1996 at Melbourne's grandest cathedral, when he was archbishop.

A 12-member jury unanimously found him guilty of exposing himself to the two boys, fondling them and forcing one to perform oral sex on him. The jury also convicted Pell of indecently assaulting one of the boys more than a month later.

A court-issued gag order had suppressed media reporting of the news until last month.

Following the sentencing on Wednesday, Vivian Waller, a lawyer for one of the victims, read a written statement by her client outside the court.

"It is hard for me to allow myself to feel the gravity of this moment, the moment when the sentence is handed down, the moment when justice is done," the man wrote. "It is hard for me, for the time being, to take comfort in this outcome. I appreciate that the court has acknowledged what was inflicted upon me as a child. However, there is no rest for me. Everything is overshadowed by the forthcoming appeal."

The other victim died in 2014 of a heroin overdose. He was 31 and never reported the abuse.

Pell denies the allegations, and his lawyers argue he has been made a scapegoat for the failings of the Catholic Church regarding sexual abuse by priests, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reported.

Pell has filed an appeal, and the court will determine if there are sufficient grounds for it to be heard. A court date has been set for June 5.

In court on Wednesday, Pell was told he will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life.

He is the most senior Vatican leader ever charged with sexual abuse. He was selected by Pope Francis to run the Vatican's new economic ministry. </s> Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Vatican official to be convicted of sex abuse to date, has been sentenced to six years in prison for the “callous” assault of two choirboys in the late 1990s.

A former senior adviser to Pope Francis, Pell showed no reaction when Chief Judge Peter Kidd handed down his sentence in a hearing broadcast live worldwide on Wednesday from Victoria’s County Court in central Melbourne.

Pell, 77, was found guilty of one count of sexual penetration of a child and four counts of committing an indecent act with a child last December after a secret five-week trial.

Reporting of the trial and verdict was suppressed by the court to avoid prejudicing a second trial, which crown prosecutors abandoned in February after the judge ruled some prosecution evidence couldn’t be submitted.

On Wednesday, Judge Kidd said Pell’s attack on the victims was “breathtakingly arrogant.”

But the judge said Pell was “not to be made a scapegoat for any failings or perceived failings of the Catholic Church.”

Pell’s legal team has previously announced it will appeal his conviction on three grounds, including that the jury’s verdict on all five charges was unreasonable, based on the evidence submitted. The Court of Appeal is due to hear submissions in early June.

Pell has spent the past two weeks in custody and was brought into the court from the Melbourne Assessment Prison (MAP) via an internal entrance, avoiding rows of cameras set up outside the court in central Melbourne.

More than 150 people crammed into the courtroom, which had been fitted with extra seats to cope with the demand from those who wanted to be there in person to hear how he’d be punished.

Pell sat in the back of the courtroom, surrounded by security officers but uncuffed, as Judge Kidd delivered a detailed explanation of the crimes the cardinal had committed and the reasons for the sentence.

After mass one Sunday in the late 1990s, Judge Kidd recounted, Pell caught two choirboys drinking communion wine in the priest’s sacristy and one by one forced them to engage in sex acts, despite their sobs and pleas for him to let them go.

The first choirboy told how he was forced to perform oral sex on the cardinal, who at the time was Archbishop of Melbourne and a revered figure within the Catholic Church.

The boy didn’t tell anyone what had happened for years, before finally approached Victoria Police in 2015, almost 20 years after the crime. His statement led to an investigation and a number of historical sex abuse charges being filed against the then-Vatican treasurer.

After his conviction, the Vatican launched its own investigation into Pell, which could lead to the cardinal losing his clerical status or being “defrocked,” a severe punishment imposed by the Pope and not subject to appeal.

In his ruling, Judge Kidd was careful not to name the two victims, one of whom gave taped evidence against Pell on a video that was seen only by the jury during the trial. Under Australian law it’s illegal to identify sex abuse victims or reveal information that could expose who they are.

The first victim has declined to comment publicly but said in a statement released by his lawyer after the ruling that since the attack he had experienced “shame, loneliness (and) depression.”

He asked that he be left alone and given time to cope with the ongoing criminal process. “The process has been stressful and is not over yet,” he said.

The second victim died of a heroin overdose a few years ago.

The deceased victim’s father told CNN that his son had been an outgoing child who played sport and liked singing, a talent that earned him a scholarship to the prestigious boys’ school and ultimately an invitation to sing in St. Patrick’s Cathedral where the attack took place.

Around one year after the assault, he said his son was kicked out of the choir, lost his scholarship and started injecting heroin.

“He was trying to mask something that had happened to him. He was trying to cover up something that had happened to him, so heinous and so horrible,” said his father, who is considering filing a civil case against the church.

Pell’s defense team had submitted 10 references that attested to Pell’s good character. They included one from former Prime Minister John Howard who wrote that Pell, his friend for approximately 30 years, was a person of “high intelligence and exemplary character.”

Howard said he was aware of Pell’s conviction and pending appeal but that “none of these matters alter my opinion of the Cardinal.”

Several of Pell’s other high-profile friends in Australia have leaped to his defense, questioning the jury’s verdict and predicting the cardinal would be exonerated on appeal.

The depiction of Pell as a man wronged has infuriated survivors of church sex abuse who say that casting victims as liars and priests as beyond reproach perpetuates a culture that allowed abuse to thrive within the Catholic Church for decades.

Statistics released in 2017 by Australia’s Royal Commission into Responses to Institutional Child Sex Abuse stated that 7% of all Catholic priests in the country had abused children over the past six decades.

Judge Kidd addressed the current climate of anger with the Catholic Church at Pell’s February hearing when he said, “The Catholic Church is not on trial and I’m not imposing a sentence on the Catholic Church. I’m imposing a sentence on Cardinal Pell for what he did.” </s> George Pell will remain incarcerated for at least another three years and two months, after the Supreme Court of Victoria rejected his appeal.

By a majority of 2-1, the Court of Appeal has determined there was sufficient evidence to convict the cardinal of the sexual assault of two choirboys more than 20 years ago, and the jury's verdict of guilty beyond reasonable doubt is sound.

Watch the video on George Pell's arrival in court above

Formerly Australia's most senior Catholic cleric - and one of the most powerful men in the Vatican - Pell was convicted on December 11, 2018, of five counts of historic child sex abuse.

He has been held in Melbourne Assessment Prison since March this year, serving a six-year sentence with a minimum three-year eight-month period.

Although he will be subsequently transferred to a more permanent prison, it is highly likely he will be kept in isolation no matter where he is incarcerated, for his own protection.

By the time of his earliest possible release he will be 81 years old.

Pell has already indicated that if his appeal against the guilty verdict failed, he would not seek a reduction to his sentence.

But it is not yet clear whether he will now apply to take his appeal to the High Court.

He will have 28 days to make that decision, and if his lawyers decide to take this option, there is a chance Pell could get out of jail on bail.

The University of Melbourne's criminal appeals and procedure expert, Professor Jeremy Gans, said this would be highly unusual - even Lindy Chamberlain stayed behind bars while her appeal was being heard.

"But everything about the Pell case is different," Gans said.

"There is a chance the court could take into account issues such as his failing health or other prison issues and grant him bail."
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When sentencing the cardinal in March, Judge Peter Kidd conceded the disgraced cleric may die in jail.

"I am conscious that the term of imprisonment which I am about to impose upon you carries with it a real, as distinct from theoretical, possibility that you may not live to be released from prison," Kidd said.

"Facing jail at your age, in these circumstances, must be an awful state of affairs for you."

However, the judge described Pell's offending as on the more serious end of the scale.

“I see this as callous, brazen offending," he said.

"Blatant. I think it did involve breach of trust, he did have in his mind some sense of impunity, how else did he think he was going to get away with this exploiting of two vulnerable boys.

"And there was an element of force here.”

Pell was made a Companion of the Order of Australia by Prime Minister John Howard in 2005.

It is almost certain he will now be stripped of this honour.

The most recent high profile Australian to be stripped of an Order of Australia honour is entertainer Rolf Harris, who was convicted of multiple historical sexual assault charges in the UK in 2014.

A 'Strip Cardinal George Pell of his Order of Australia' petition on Change.org has so far collected more than 212,000 signatures.

Upon his release, Pell will not be welcomed back into the Vatican fold.

In December, Pope Francis dumped Pell from his “C-9” inner circle of advising cardinals – the Vatican equivalent of a cabinet.

The Australian cleric's five-year term as the Vatican’s powerful head of the Secretariat for the Economy, where he oversaw the Vatican’s finances, expired a matter of days before the suppression order on his guilty verdict was lifted earlier this year.

It was not renewed.

Francis is expected to directly speak about the conviction of his former close aid within the next 48 hours.

When the suppression order was lifted on February 26, the Pope issued the following tweet:

He also delivered a sermon in the Vatican addressing the “scourge of the sexual abuse of minors” including those by “deceitful consecrated persons.”

The Vatican's own investigation into allegations against the Cardinal, which commenced on February 27, continues.

Christopher Lamb, Vatican correspondent for the international Catholic news outlet The Tablet, said although church investigations and trials tend to use the findings in the civil courts as part of their own procedures, the process is still completely separate, with the Pope as ultimate judge.

It is understood the Vatican investigation also intends to take evidence from the complainants involved in the second Pell trial, referred to as the "Ballarat swimming pool case" that was abandoned after a judge ruled in March there was a lack of evidence.

Should the Vatican investigation find the allegations against him "credible" (as opposed to "beyond reasonable doubt", which is the requirement under criminal proceedings) the church will have no alternative other than to defrock him.
The Supreme Court of Victoria rejects an appeal made by Cardinal George Pell against a six-year jail sentence for child sexual abuse.