Vatican finance chief awaits decision over sex offences trial




Pfandergloria

29 March 2018







Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell faces a nervous wait after a hearing to determine if he will stand trial on historical sexual offence charges adjourned Thursday.
After four weeks of witness statements , and cross -examinations by Pell ’ s lawyers , magistrate Belinda Wallington retired to decide if there is sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial .
A decision is expected some time in April .




The 76-year - old , who is a top adviser to Pope Francis, is on leave and returned to Australia to fight the allegations which relate to incidents that allegedly occurred long ago . He has regularly attended the court .
The exact details and nature of the accusations have not been made public , other than they involve “ multiple complainants” .




The committal hearing at Melbourne Magistrates Court kicked off on March 5 and has sometimes been fiery , with Pell ’ s lawyer on Wednesday accusing Wallington of being biased towards the prosecutors .




At one point she asked barrister Robert Richter to stop shouting during a legal argument, to which he called on her to “ disqualify herself from hearing this matter on the basis of a biased view of the evidence ” .





Pell , a former Sydney and Melbourne archbishop , is the highest -ranking Catholic official to face historical sex offences . He denies all the charges.
The cleric has not had to enter a plea, although he instructed his lawyer from the outset to make clear he intended to plead not guilty .





During the hearing, Richter accused the police investigation of being a “ get Pell operation ” .
When asked whether this was the case , Superintendent Paul Sheridan replied : “ I wouldn’ t use those words but I guess you could term it the way you did . ”





Sheridan was one of the officers who travelled to Rome to interview Pell before he was charged.
He confirmed to the court the cardinal was the subject of a dedicated police probe for 12 months before an official complaint was made , the Herald Sun reported .





The court heard two men who made “ minor ” allegations against Pell had also made serious allegations against other people — a teacher and a nun.
Sheridan said he could not say why the serious allegations were not investigated , while Pell was .
“ Serious allegations … were put on the back burner and not investigated while minor allegations against Pell were, ” Richter said .




During the hearing, the defence cross - examined witnesses about their interactions with Pell at several locations , including at a swimming pool , cinema and a lake in rural Victoria state, Melbourne’ s The Age newspaper reported.


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