Australian Cardinal George Pell was released from prison on Tuesday, shortly after his acquittal by Australia's highest court in a pedophilia case, an AFP journalist said. The 78-year-old prelate, once one of the most powerful in the Vatican, left Barwon prison, near Melbourne (south), sitting in the back of a black car. He was detained in March 2019. The 78-year-old Australian was acquitted of five counts of sexual violence against two 13-year-old choir boys in the 1990s, for the benefit of the doubt.
Sexual violence case in 1996 and 1997
This decision by the highest Australian court is a great victory for Cardinal Pell, who had firmly proclaimed his innocence. Reacting shortly after the announcement of his acquittal, the cardinal considered that the judgment had remedied "a serious injustice".
"I don't want my acquittal to add to the pain and bitterness that many feel; there is certainly enough pain and bitterness," he added in a statement released before his imminent release from prison. . "However, my trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church nor a referendum on how the Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of pedophilia in the Church. The question was whether I had committed these horrific crimes, and that is not the case, "he said again.
Former Secretary of Economy of the Holy See, Cardinal Pell was sentenced in March 2019 to six years in prison for sexual violence committed against these two adolescents in 1996 and 1997 in Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne (southeast ), city of which he was the archbishop.
In December 2018, a jury convicted Mr. Pell for these offenses, before the decision was confirmed by a panel of three judges from the Southeastern Victoria Court of Appeal last August, in a shared stop (2 against 1).
"Devastating" decision
The Australian High Court in Brisbane said on Tuesday that there was "a significant likelihood that an innocent person would have been convicted because the evidence did not establish his or her guilt according to the level of evidence required".
The seven magistrates of the High Court thus unanimously considered that the lower court had "failed to consider the question of whether there remained a reasonable possibility that the offense had not been committed, so that "there should have been a reasonable doubt as to the plaintiff's guilt".
The prelate's lawyers had argued during the trial "serious improbabilities" in this case, insisting in particular on the fact that the cardinal would not have had the time or the opportunity to commit sexual violence on the boys in the sacristy priests after mass.
Cathy Kezelman, president of the victim support organization Blue Knot Foundation, said the Australian High Court's decision would be "devastating" for many victims. "The pandemic of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has threatened the safety of millions of children, the adults they become and the very moral fiber of what it means to be human," he said. she declared, stressing that she respected the decision of the Australian high court.
"Pell is now free, but many victims of abuse have never been free, trapped in the horror of the crimes that have decimated their lives," added Ms. Kezelman.
The former Vatican treasurer remains in the priesthood, but his future role in the Catholic Church remains uncertain. During his trial, he was discreetly removed from the highest levels of the Church. The Vatican, on the other hand, resisted the opening of an internal investigation to possibly sanction it.