MELBOURNE, Australia — Cardinal George Pell, the highest ranking Catholic clergyman convicted of sexually abusing children, left a courtroom in Melbourne, Australia, on Wednesday flanked by police officers to spend his first night in jail, after a judge heard arguments to determine his sentence for molesting two choirboys in 1996.
Wednesday’s hearing followed months of judicial proceedings that were kept out of the news media by a strict gag order, and which resulted in the cardinal’s conviction on five charges in December.
Judge Peter Kidd of the County Court of Victoria told a packed courtroom on Wednesday that Cardinal Pell’s “brazen, callous offending” deserved a commensurate punishment, and said he would sentence the cardinal on March 13.
Cardinal Pell, 77, technically faces up to 50 years in prison for crimes that include sexual penetration of a minor. One of the two victims said Cardinal Pell abused him in the sacristy of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne, soon after Cardinal Pell was named that city’s archbishop.
“He did it,” Judge Kidd said of Cardinal Pell. “He engaged in some shocking conduct against two boys, and he had the capacity to reason and did it in such brazen circumstances that he obviously felt some degree of impunity.”
The case coincides with a change in the Catholic Church’s approach to clerical abuse, and the cardinal will be sentenced just days after Pope Francis concluded a summit of church leaders in which he promised that abusers would meet “the wrath of God.”
The lawyers for Cardinal Pell on Wednesday dropped their application for bail and said they would appeal the conviction after his sentence was delivered. Unusually, the cardinal was not previously remanded to jail after his conviction because he recently underwent knee replacement surgery.
“Despite the unprecedented media coverage, Cardinal Pell has always and continues to maintain his innocence,” the defense lawyer Paul Galbally said in a statement. “Like any personal he has the right to pursue his legal rights and will do so.”
In court on Wednesday, Robert Richter, another defense lawyer, argued that the cardinal’s sentence should be mitigated because at the time of the offenses, he had no special relationship or duty of care to the children he abused after Sunday Mass.
But Judge Kidd said that the cardinal’s actions absolutely involved “a breach of trust,” which began the moment the boys’ parents dropped their children at the church that morning. “Every single member of the church” had a responsibility to the boys, he said.
Mr. Richter also produced a list of character references, that, he said, showed the cardinal to be a kind and generous man with a “great deal of compassion.” Among the references was a letter written by John Howard, a former prime minister of Australia.
The prosecution produced two victims’ statements from the main complainant in the case and from the father of the second boy, who died in 2014.
The prosecutor Mark Gibson called the abuse “humiliating and degrading toward each boy and gave rise to stress.”
Cardinal Pell is charged with four counts of an indecent act, and one act of sexual penetration with a minor, which Mr. Gibson said carried maximum terms of 10 years each.
Given his age and the slim chance of reoffending, experts said, it was unlikely he would receive the maximum penalty.
In a rare display of emotion at one point in the hearing, Cardinal Pell was seen removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes. He remained with his eyes closed for a few moments, silently nodding his head.
As he left the courtroom in police custody, Cardinal Pell bowed to Judge Kidd.
Source : Nytimes
