'Terrible choice of phrase': Robert Richter apologises for 'plain vanilla' comment describing acts of sexual abuse carried out by Cardinal George Pell
Defence barrister Robert Richter, QC, has apologised for describing acts of sexual abuse carried out by Cardinal George Pell against two choirboys as "no more than a plain vanilla sexual penetration case".
"After spending a sleepless night reflecting upon the terrible choice of phrase I used in court during the course of a long and stressful process, I offer my sincerest apologies to all who were hurt or offended by it," Mr Richter said in a statement released on Thursday evening. The cardinal was found guilty in December of orally raping one choirboy and molesting another in St Patrick’s Cathedral in East Melbourne in 1996. The verdict was made public on Tuesday after a suppression order was lifted.Mr Richter told the court on Wednesday that although the cardinal maintained that he was innocent, the crimes he had been found guilty of were short, not pre-meditated and no more than any other "plain vanilla case" of sexual penetration against a child.
He also said guilty verdicts weren't based on possibilities. It was also possible, he said, the court building could blow up. "But we don't conduct our lives on that basis."
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