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Victorian Premier Asks Prime Minister To Release Redacted Report Into George Pell

Victorian Premier Asks Prime Minister To Release Redacted Report Into George Pell

The report investigated Pell's handling of allegations of sexual abuse against priests earlier​ in his career

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Victoria's Premier has requested the redacted report about Cardinal George Pell should be released after the 78-year-old was granted his freedom from prison.

The former high ranking Catholic Church member was released from Barwon Prison this week after the High Court of Australia acquitted him of his historical child sexual abuse conviction.

Victorian prosecutors have said there are no current or future criminal court cases for Pell.

PA

As a result, Daniel Andrews wants to see the public release of the document that investigated Pell's handling of allegations of sexual abuse against priests earlier in his career.

The file was created during the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. However, when the findings were released in 2017, this section on Pell was redacted because it could have prejudiced any of his trials or appeals, reports The Age.

The report documented Pell's time as a 'consultor' in the early 1980s when he was working for Ballarat ­bishop Ronald Mulkearns.

The Royal Commission found that Mulkearns knew about the actions of Gerald Ridsdale - who was convicted between 1993 and 2017 of child sexual abuse and indecent assault charges against 65 children - but instead of speaking out about it he decided to move Ridsdale to other parishes.

Now that Pell, the former treasurer for the Catholic Church, has been acquitted and had his conviction quashed, Mr Andrews believes the public has a right to know what the investigation found.

Daniel Andrews.
PA

According to The Age, the Victorian Premier has personally asked the Prime Minister to open the redacted file and hand it over to the public.

Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter says he wants to publish the report, however it could be weeks before it's released to Australia.

The High Court of Australia decided to acquit Pell based on the idea the evidence that convicted him did not fall under the category of 'beyond reasonable doubt'.

Pell was found guilty in December 2018 on four counts of an indecent act with a child under 16, and on one count of sexual penetration.

The 78-year-old was accused of abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in Melbourne's St. Patrick's Cathedral in the late 1990s.

PA

The High Court of Australia released its decision, saying: "The High Court found that 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, and ordered that the convictions be quashed and that verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place.

"Their Honours went on to consider the evidence of a number of 'opportunity witnesses', who had described the movements of the applicant and others following the conclusion of Sunday solemn Mass in a way that was inconsistent with the complainant's account.

"Their Honours found that no witness could say with certainty that these routines and practices were never departed from and concluded that the jury had not been compelled to entertain a reasonable doubt as to the applicant's guilt.

"The Court held that, on the assumption that the jury had assessed the complainant's evidence as thoroughly credible and reliable, the evidence of the opportunity witnesses nonetheless required the jury, acting rationally, to have entertained a reasonable doubt as to the applicant's guilt in relation to the offences involved in both alleged incidents."

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Topics: News, Australia