Catholic cardinal George Pell gets last chance to overturn Australia sex offences conviction. More here:
MELBOURNE - Catholic cardinal George Pell will have one last chance to overturn his conviction for sexually assaulting two teenaged choirboys after the Australian High Court on Wednesday agreed to hear the former Vatican treasurer’s appeal.
Lawyers for Pell declined to comment on Wednesday’s decision, which is the cardinal’s final avenue to clear his name after an earlier appeal upheld his conviction by a lower court.The cardinal was found guilty in the Victorian County Court in December of abusing two 13-year-old boys at St Patrick’s Cathedral in the late 1990s when he was archbishop of Melbourne.
“This will prolong what has been a lengthy and difficult process, but we can only hope that the appeal will be heard as soon as reasonably possible and that the High Court’s judgment will bring clarity and a resolution for all,” Archbishop Mark Coleridge, head of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said in a statement.
The High Court on Wednesday ordered Pell’s lawyers to file their arguments for appeal by Jan. 8, with the crown prosecutors’ response due on Feb. 5.Pell’s lawyers took the case to the High Court on the basis the Court of Appeal was wrong to have found that the jury’s verdict was not unreasonable. Lawyers also argued the majority judges had erred in shifting the burden of proof to the defense to show that it would have been impossible for Pell to have committed the offenses.
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