George Pell: Australian cardinal released from jail after high court quashes child sexual abuse conviction // Pell's accuser issues rallying cry to sexual abuse survivors
Cardinal George
Pell, the former financial controller of the Vatican and the most senior
Catholic in the world to have been found guilty of historical child sexual
abuse, will be freed from prison and have his convictions overturned following
a two-year legal battle. The bench of the high
court in Brisbane on Tuesday granted leave for Pell to appeal, ordering his
immediate release and quashing the conviction.
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The high court found
that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have
entertained a doubt as to Pell’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. In other words, it was
not enough that the jurors found the witness believable, compelling and honest. The other evidence should have called his account into question, the bench
found. In a summary of the
judgment, the bench said 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”. 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”, the bench
found....
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/07/cardinal-george-pell-conviction-quashed-australia-high-court-freed-jail-appeal-upheld