Welcome to live coverage of the appeal verdict into George Pell’s conviction on child sex abuse charges. The judgment will be handed down at 9.30am today in the Court of Appeal in Melbourne. Watch live here.
John Ferguson 6.30am: Pell prepares for judgment
Today is D-Day for George Pell.
If his appeal fails, the convicted sex offender will have no short-term prospects of leaving jail.
It is likely he would spend at least another year in prison. Maybe more. Assuming the High Court heard any further appeal.
Conversely, if the Court of Appeal finds in favour of Pell, 78, he could walk free about 10am.
This would be if his legal team successfully appeals on the basic fact that the jury got it wrong.
If the court rules in his favour on one of the other two minor grounds, there could be a retrial.
If this were to occur, this would be his third County Court trial, an outcome that would appear borderline cruel for both parties.
The Australian revealed on June 30, 2017, that Pell had been charged with multiple sex crimes.
In all, there were 26 charges involving nine complainants. This excludes the Phillip Island complaint made against him when Pell was a seminarian in 1961 or 1962.
It also excludes a complaint about his behaviour at a lake in country Victoria but Pell was not charged for this alleged crime.
Pell’s legal team is basically arguing that the jury got it completely wrong — that it should not have found the cardinal was a brutal sex offender in the sacristy at St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996 and 1997. That it was organisationally impossible for him to commit the offences.
John Ferguson 6.15am: Accusers ready to sue Pell
George Pell will face multiple civil court actions over child sex abuse regardless of the outcome of today’s appeal judgment on his criminal convictions.
The father of the late choirboy sexually abused by Pell in 1996 has vowed to pursue the church and Pell, 78, whatever the result of the Court of Appeal finding.
The father is one of several people pursuing Pell, the church and other senior church figures for compensation flowing from either abuse or failing to stop abuse.
The choirboy died in 2014 of a drug overdose aged about 30, a death his father claims was linked to post-traumatic stress disorder caused when Pell sexually abused the boy as a 13-year-old in Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral.
Read the full story here.
George Pell will find out today whether he has successfully appealed his conviction for sexually abusing two Melbourne choirboys in 1996. The 78-year-old was found guilty back in December and is serving a six-year jail term with a non-parole period of three years and eight months. Image: AP
Associate Editor
Melbourne
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