Australian court upholds cardinal’s child sex convictions
Aug 20, 2019 | 5:47 PM
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MELBOURNE, Australia — An Australian court has upheld convictions against the most senior Catholic to be found guilty of children sex abuse.
The Victoria state Court of Appeal by a 2-1 majority ruling issued Wednesday rejected Cardinal George Pell’s appeal of the unanimous verdicts a jury issued in December finding Pope Francis’ former finance minister guilty of molesting two 13-year-old choirboys in Melbourne’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996 and 1997.
At the time, Pell had just become archbishop of Australia’s second largest city and had set up a world-first compensation arrangement for victims of clergy sexual abuse.
His lawyers are expected to appeal the decision in the High Court, Australia’s final arbiter.
