In his own words: Court releases Cardinal George Pell’s interview with police

Author : mamun Published: February 28, 2019

Updated

February 28, 2019 19:32:28

A video recording of Cardinal George Pell’s interview by police has been released by a Melbourne court as the man who was once Australia’s most powerful Catholic spent his first day behind bars.

Key points:

The 45-minute video shows Pell being interviewed by police in Rome in 2016
Pell was charged with child sex offences eight months after the police interview
The video was played to the court during Pell’s two trials last year but has only been released now

Pell, 77, was transported to the Melbourne Assessment Prison late yesterday after his bail was revoked at the end of his plea hearing in the County Court.

He will be sentenced in a fortnight after being convicted of five child sexual offences including sexual penetration of a child under 16 and four counts of committing an indecent act with a child.

The court has now released a video recording of Pell’s interview by police at an airport hotel in Rome in October 2016, eight months before he was charged with child sex offences.

The 45-minute video was played to the court during Pell’s two trials last year, as he unsuccessfully fought charges relating to the sexual abuse of two choirboys.

He did not give evidence during the trial and so the police interview was the only time the jurors heard from the accused man himself.

It depicts Pell, flanked by a lawyer, sitting across a table from Victoria Police Detective Sergeant Christopher Reed who put the allegations to the senior Vatican official for the first time.

Pell responded by describing them as “absolute and disgraceful rubbish” and claimed they were the “product of fantasy”.

Photo:
The abuse took place at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

“The most rudimentary interview of staff and those who were choirboys … would confirm that the allegations are fundamentally improbable and most certainly false,” he said.

At the outset, Pell told Sergeant Reed he intended to answer all questions.

In return, he expected to be able to give the detective a list of people that should be interviewed who “may be in the best position to demonstrate the falsity of the accusations”.

The first jury to hear the trial was discharged when it was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

The second convicted Pell on five charges that each carry a maximum penalty of 10 years’ jail.

Topics:

religion-and-beliefs,

police,

melbourne-3000,

east-melbourne-3002,

vic,