# Talk:Pell v The Queen

The process of appeal is difficult to understand, so perhaps this might be helpful:

The High Court has to rule on the legal rational of the Victorian Court of Appeal not the facts themselves. It was not examining from scratch whether Pell was innocent or guilty, but in the first place whether the appeal was judged correctly from the legal viewpoint;
Having decided that the legal rationale was wrong, then the High Court applied the correct test.
In applying the correct test, the High Court followed the steps the Appeal Court used to weigh evidence and see whether that logic still held: it could not look at evidence fresh or to Perry Mason what actually happened.
In the Pell case, there was a lot of "unchallenged" evidence by witnesses at the Cathedral: the High Court found that the Court of Appeal had erred in the way it disregarded that evidence. No matter how credible the alleged victim A was, when there are enough credible eyewitnesses saying it did not or could not happen the way that the prosecution charged, because they were there, then there must be reasonable doubt, it seems.
So, in theory, if the Appeals Court looked at evidence A, B and C and come to some conclusion, then if they have applied the right legal principles then the High Court must allow the decision to stand, even if the High Court judges (had they been the appeal judges) would have come to some other conclusion. But where there has been the wrong legal theory applied then the High Court must plod through the Appeals Court's findings step by step and determine whether applying the right legal principles would  make a difference. Rick Jelliffe (talk) 13:56, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

I have added extra citations and material especially in the new section "The judgment". I was surprised that the article as it was had GA status, as I think (without it being wrong!) it failed to make some basic legal distinctions clearly that legal readers need, nor detail the specific improbabilities that general readers need. Anyway, I think/hope both those things are improved now.  Rick Jelliffe (talk) 04:29, 28 March 2025 (UTC)