Cardinal George Pell, who was investigated in 2002 for sexually assaulting a 12 year-old-boy in 1961, gave evidence yesterday (24/3/14) at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It is a bit rich to call what came out of George’s mouth “evidence” given almost every second word would have to classified as perjury.
There are two key points to this post. One is the perjured evidence of George Pell at the Royal Commission and two is why has the Royal Commission has not raised the child sex abuse allegations made against George Pell which were only ever investigated by the church. Yep, the church found there was insufficient evidence against Pell. Pell said he had been exonerated which he had clearly not. Another Pell lie and another reason why the Royal Commission should be asking Pell about the allegations that look more likely to be true every time Pell tells a lie as his evidence cannot be believed on any matter and is highly unreliable to say the least.
George’s perjured evidence at the Royal Commission
George has a long history of lying and was caught out on camera in the 2002 interview on 60 Minutes with reporter Richard Carlton. In that interview George Pell said aggressively that he did not offer a victim $50,000 to settle with the church. Then Richard Carlton produced a letter of offer from the church’s law firm saying words to the effect that “we represent George Pell and are offering you $50,000 to settle the matter.” (The video is below and I have edited it down to 2 1/2 minutes.)
.
(To watch the full interview on YouTube click here. It has more on George Pell and his support for the convicted paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale)
Pell says everyone else is lying at the Royal commission except himself
George Pell has been unloading on everyone including his own long-term private secretary Dr Michael Casey and other senior church officials. While Pell is careful to not say they have lied or perjured themselves, he is clearly implying that when he continually says on key points that their evidence is “not correct” or “that did not happen” etc. Some examples are:
“Giving evidence the Cardinal said he could not remember “ever being asked my opinion on how much money might be paid for reparation compensation to a Towards Healing victim”.
“The evidence of his then-Archdiocesan Chancellor Brian Rayner that the Cardinal always made the final decision on offers to victims was not correct, the Cardinal said. He said the suggestion that he had offered Mr Ellis an extra $5000, taking it to $30,000, after Mr Ellis lost his job as a partner of Baker & McKenzie was “grotesque”.”
And: “He also said his private secretary Dr Michael Casey was wrong to assume that the chancellor discussed with him all offers to be made to victims. “That didn’t happen,’’” (Click here to read more)
Pell also attacked the credibility of other church staff. If you believe Pell, he was working with a bunch of compulsive liars.
“In the photo, Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale (left, in sunglasses and hat) walks to court, accompanied by his support person (Bishop George Pell, then an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne), when Father Ridsdale was pleading guilty to his first batch of criminal charges in May 1993 for sexually abusing children. But no bishop accompanied the victims, who felt deserted by the church leaders.” (From the Broken Rites website. Click here to read more)
Cardinal George Pell allegedly sexually assaulted a 12 year-old-boy
I raised the assault allegations last year in another post on a similar topic (Click here to read) but it is worth reviewing in a bit more depth in light of the massive perjury of George Pell at the Royal Commission because the person who investigated said both Pell and the complainant seemed credible. Well we have known for a long time that George Pell has no credibility and that has been reinforced tenfold given his perjury at the Royal Commission.
“In October 2002, the Catholic Church in Australia posted on its official website a document entitled Report of an inquiry into an allegation of sexual abuse against Archbishop George Pell. The report was compiled by a retired Victorian Supreme Court judge, Mr A.J. Southwell Q.C., who had been engaged by the Catholic Church to conduct an inquiry into the allegation. The inquiry was held in Melbourne in September-October 2002. Mr M. Tovey Q.C. appeared for the complainant and Mr J. Sher Q.C. appeared for George Pell.”
“The details of the complaint are as follows: at the camp, during some form of activity in a tent (such as pillow fighting or wrestling), the respondent, while facing the complainant, put his hand down the inside of the complainant’s pants and got “a good handful” of his penis and testicles. There were other altar boys in the tent at the time, who were participating in the other playful activities. The complainant was shocked, since before that incident he had regarded the respondent as “a fun person, a gentle person, a kind person, he was a terrific bloke”. On each of the few occasions this occurred, the complainant pulled the respondent’s hand away. On two occasions, in a tent, the respondent took the complainant’s hand, and guided it down the front of and inside the respondent’s pants; the complainant pulled his hand away without having touched the respondent’s genitals. In another incident, which “is not as clear as the other episodes”, they were in the water, jumping the waves, when from one side the respondent put his hand down and inside the complainant’s bathers and touched his genitals.”
“On another occasion, during a walk away from the camp at night, they were walking in Indian file when the respondent grabbed the complainant from behind and put his hand down and inside of the complainant’s pants.” (Click here to read more)
It was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper at the time:
“Even if George Pell is completely exonerated, should he – and the Catholic Church – bear some responsibility for his present circumstance? Deborah Snow reports.”
“Black-clad, resolute, Australia’s foremost warrior-churchman, Archbishop George Pell, stood outside St Mary’s Cathedral this week and vowed to challenge the “lies” which have forced him to step aside. It was a typically defiant response from the Vatican’s hard man in Australia, who’s forged a career out of carrying the fight to opponents both inside and outside the Catholic Church.”
“The charges are grave – that more than 40 years ago, as a trainee priest, Pell sexually molested a 12-year-old boy. If you take the archbishop at his word, his outrage is natural.”
“But as one senior priest observed, “He could have framed his statement of innocence in a way that was less confrontational with his accuser. He could have left the door open for the complainant to decide he’d got it wrong. But now the complainant’s been branded a liar, that’s an unlikely outcome.”” (Click here to read more)
“After a church-appointed inquiry, Pell said he was grateful to God to have been exonerated.”
“In fact, retired Victorian Supreme Court judge Alec Southwell had said that both Pell and his accuser gave the impression they were speaking the truth. Taking into account questions about the accuser’s credibility (he had a criminal record) and the fact that the alleged incidents occurred so long ago, Southwell found he was “not satisfied that the complaint had been established”.” (Click here to read more)
The retired Victorian Supreme Court judge Alec Southwell was on the Church’s payroll as it was an internal Church inquiry so he was hardly impartial. The full report was put on the Churches website in 2002 but has since been taken down. Part of it can be read on the Broken Rites Australia website. (Click here to read)
One of the things that people wonder is if Royal Commissions achieve anything. Well this RC has already achieved plenty as far as I am concerned because George Pell will be held to account. Maybe he will not go to jail but his reputation is destroyed and so it should be. George Pell is due to leave for his new job in Rome next Monday. He had become a joke and embarrassment to the church in Australia and had to go and the church knew it. I think the Royal Commission has helped drive that change in the church. Cardinal Pell is now nothing more than a criminal on the run.
George Pell is due back in the witness stand tomorrow (Wednesday 26/3/14) and if anything worth mentioning develops I will update this post.
Update (28/3/14): A supporter (as per the comment section below) has kindly found a full copy of the Southwell QC report regarding the investigation into George Pell. (Click here to read)
Click here to read a full copy of the George Pell witness statement to the Royal Commission.
Please use the Twitter, Facebook and email etc. buttons below and help promote this post.
Kangaroo Court of Australia is an independent website and is reliant on donations to keep publishing. If you would like to support the continuance of this site, please click on the button below to donate via PayPal or go to the donations page for other donation options. (Click here to go to the Donations page)
If you would like to follow this website, you can by email notification at the top right of this page and about twice a week you will be notified when there is a new article.
Thank you for your support.
Categories: Royal Commission
The media have effectively been silenced by our defamation laws, which our elites love but everyone else hates. I’m sure that the legal division of every newspaper, TV and radio station in Australia has a letter from Pell’s lawyers demanding that his never be mentioned again. Good stuff from you to bring this up — at least someone has the guts to take this head-on.
Defamation laws haven’t silenced the media. There is nothing defamatory about the story as Pell was investigated for assaulting a boy. Two of the links in the post are to the Sydney Morning Herald as they have run with the story before in 2002 and 2012. All the media have chosen not to run with it now for whatever reason which reflects extremely poorly on them because it is definitely relevant now with the Royal Commission reviewing the past and what happened as per my post above.
The only things silencing our media are their editorial policies. That won’t change any time soon. We don’t really have media anyway (in the traditional sense), we have a couple of entertainment companies.
It’s fairly obvious that although these allegations made front page headlines when they were first made, Pell and his church have used this country’s overbearing defamation laws to silence everyone including the media since. If Mr. Dowling doubts this, I suggest he head over to strident Pell critic Catherine Deveny’s website, where she discusses the legal threats made by Pell’s lawyers this week over a Tweet based on *Pell’s own words* on an episode of ‘Q and A’. (catherinedeveny[dot]com)
Moderator: From what I found the Pell threat was actually back in 2012, not this week.
Carlton missed one glaring point: If the victims wanted anonymity through sworn secrecy, why oh why would the church impose it on them?
Wouldn’t the victims be imposing secrecy on the church and not the other way around?
I wonder whether Southwell, Tovey and Sher were members of Pell’s church? They would all be marching to the church drum anyway. Pell’s feet of clay are crumbling. Perhaps when (if) he gets to Rome he’ll use his real name Cardinal Machiavelli and appoint his mate Abbott as his successor here.
has there been a more evil institution in the history of mankind than the catholic church?
supression of knowledge; forced conversion; extortion of wealth; promotion of aids; support of the german nazis; sexual abuse?
it goes on and on, but just as bad has been its reliance upon the goodheartedness of many of its supporters who gave so much of themselves to help others;
what would jesus have said??
“The Evil Empire” I think describes it fairly accurately.
The Catholic Church in Sydney was reported tonight as being worth well over a billion dollars and having a multi-million dollar a year income. Probably doing better than the Mafia.
I have just emailed a submission to the royal commission as per below. If you want to, make a submission yourself. The email address is below.
From: Shane Dowling [mailto:shanedowling@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 25 March 2014 7:45 PM
To: contact@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au
Subject: Submission to the Royal Coimmission
Dear Sir/Madam
I have just published an article on my website “Kangaroo Court of Australia” which I would also like the Royal Commission to take as a submission. A copy of the article is attached and it is titled “Alleged paedophile Cardinal George Pell gives perjured evidence at the Royal Commission” and it is at:
http://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2014/03/25/alleged-paedophile-cardinal-george-pell-gives-perjured-evidence-at-the-royal-commission
Regards
Shane Dowling
Kangaroo Court of Australia
Ph 0411 238 704
Shane, if by ..’make a submission yourself’ you mean send an email to the commission referring it to your above comments and web site, I’d be happy to do that..
Ian
contact@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au
Dear Sir,
RE: George Pell
I follow a social media internet site operated by Shane Dowling. Yesterday, 25th March, he posted very disturbing and serious allegations against George Pell.
I believe that it is in the interest of those abused as well as the public interest that these claims are examined by the Royal Commission.
The link to the above mentioned post is:
http://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2014/03/25/alleged-paedophile-cardinal-george-pell-gives-perjured-evidence-at-the-royal-commission
Shane, your website provides great insight to corruption, on this occasion rather than just reading, I too have sent a submission to the commission to add my concerns
Shane
A fearless piece of informative reporting
that the MSM refuse to take up
This menacing story of woe— bought about by the
cover-ups of the Catholic Church and the lack of support by Big George in his dealings with the wounded victims is a crime against Christian decency
The loved ones of the victims and the victims themselves owe you a debt of gratitue
for your ongoing fealess reporting
Just saying – you can’t say someone is an “alleged paedophile” unless there is currently a legal case against him. The fact that there is no case and an independent panel found this to have no ground, means you cannot say Pell is an “alleged paedophile”… so while you can bring up the past accusation with no problem, you cannot use the term “alleged paedophile”. This can certainly be considered defamation.
The SMH had to correct this mistake last year: http://www.smh.com.au/national/apology-to-cardinal-george-pell-20130328-2gx0t.html
I stand by the fact that George Pell is an “alleged paedophile”. He has not been cleared of wronging doing by any independent person or panel. To say that an “independent panel” found the allegation against Pell to have “no ground” is a total disgrace and lie. There was no panel at all. It was a finding by one person, that being retired Victorian Supreme Court Judge A.J. Southwell and he was on the church’s payroll, so hardly independent.
And even Southwell did not find that there was “no ground”. He said he was “not satisfied that the complaint had been established”. I have no doubt that if Southwell had of taken into account that Pell is a compulsive liar, which we all know from his evidence at the Royal Commission etc, then Southwell would have come to a different conclusion.
George Pell can sue if he wants, but he won’t because he would lose the case and because raising the past and having someone have a genuine independent investigation into the matter is the last thing that Pell wants.
From what I can tell the SMH apologised for one or two lines in their story. I won’t be apologising for anything.
I agree with Shane; Pell wont do anything, the last thing he and his media advisers want is further publicity. I don’t believe anyone watching his testimony or past media performances would be left in any doubt that his denials of being informed of abuse by victims has any merit.
it was that type of performance which leaves you in little doubt that the position being taken by the church is one of weathering the storm and trying to save the institution rather than improve the message.
It was pleasing to hear the commissioner say he was determined to get to the bottom of this matter and impliedly not be stymied by the churches tactics
Anna
Im a gambling man and I’m willing to bet against all the ill gotten tax free $billions of wealth and riches of the Catholic Church that it has accumulated over the centuries –it will not be enough to try and quieten Shane Dowling
Not since the Catholic church and their evil empire tried to quieten Galileo
would they be daring enough ( with all the friendly lawyer advice in the world)
would they be silly enough to take on this little tiger
Good luck in your tilting at windmills –Anna
The organised churches of the world have more then their fare share of artifacts and trophies to hide. Be it Catholic, Islam, or Buddhism, where man is involved their will be corruption, persecution, and common lying towards the mass’s. I think this is one of the reasons they ask the Lord for forgiveness, and not prevention.
it seems as clear as day that every word that comes out of Pells mouth is designed to be cautious and minimize damage etc, rather than being the simple spontaneous truth.
we should ask why? is it because the real spontaneous truth is likely to cause more damage than the phony semantic arguments and distinctions that Pell et al are spewing forth?
hard to imagine it being worse when the evidence coming out is so putrid.
this institution was meant to represent the highest morals yet now seems as though it is on par with many greedy corporate immoral entities
George Pell is an evil, twisted man who has to be exposed for what he really is. Pell is a criminal with no remorse for the ruining of so many young lives through his cover ups of sexual abuse under his leadership. Pell’s support of Gerald Risdale when Risdale went to court was completely unspeakable & reprehensible. George Pell’s lies in the 60 minutes interview with Richard Carelton were disgusting. Pell lives in a fantasy world where he thinks that he is above the law and is happy to rat on anyone (even his former church working colleagues/officials) to get himself off the hook. Well I think this royal commission has woken up to Pell’s sickening lies, and Pell is finally trapped in it. This job he now has as the new Vatican treasurer is his first step in getting out of Australia because anything can happen to Mr Pell now. So yes I agree that George Pell is a criminal on the run now. The question is will the Vatican realize the ugly truth on their new “treasurer” George Pell?.
It is sad & a disgrace that this sexual molester is allowed to get away. Where is justice ? The Law is indeed failing.
this is just one small piece of evidence that reinforces my view that churches are just one big rort: it is a tax free enterprise, and a lawless one where you can do pretty much anything you like and have it all covered up by mates within that entity AND by your friends outside in the political and legal arena..IMO the whole system from the top down is based on criminality and corruption – mates helping mates to do their dirty business, whatever that may be. the best way to fight this is to stay away from churches – just have a DIRECT one on one relationship with your god and CUT out the middle men who are using you and your belief to benefit themselves somehow (sexually, financially). PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR KIDS. starve them until they wither and die.
What really escapes me is how the Commission can allow Pell to perjure himself and admit criminal behaviour and not take his passport to stop him fleeing off to Rome to escape his just deserts. Is his good mate Abbott the Jesuit pressuring the Commission?
you are perfectly correct grumpy, I think the answer is historical. Our authorities seem to have always allowed the church to dictate terms. the church openly admitted it was aware of deviate priests and openly stated that it would conduct its own investigations and counselling and nobody said anything. only recently was it commented upon and action taken that failing to report these crimes to the authorities was a crime itself and I recall it was only in the last 2 years that a priest was charged with that offence
if nothing else, these enquiries will put the spot light on this evil institution and not allow the silence to continue
hopefully we will not hear from Pell again, that he is launching his own “independant” enquiry….as if…..
Well soon Pell will be gone and who will the bogey man be then?
The total focus on the Catholic Church and Pell in particular lets the over 90% of child molesters that are family members or close friends of the family carry on their disgusting acts out of the spot light.
There are probably more pedophiles in government, the judiciary, scouting and youth movements and sections of the media today than there are in the church, not that even one of them should be left unexposed. And lets not forget, women can be pedophiles as well. Many a female teacher has been caught entertaining her charges in the bedroom.
One under every bed you might say. Almost as scary as Communists.
Scarier than communists Paul. It will become evident quite quickly that a person is a communist supporter. A pedophile? Generally no one has a clue until it is far too late.
another issue which invites investigation and consideration is the solicitor/client relationship.
regarding pell and the Ellis abuse, the firm of Corrs, Chambers westgarth ( Corrs) were instructed on behalf of the church
Pell was aware that Ellis had been abused, and aside from the morally obvious, ought to have legally provided a complete statement to his legal advisers, and they ought to have sought such a statement.
having been given that statement, the lawyers then should have provided legal advice, which in the circumstances should have been to the effect of admitting liability and then perhaps questioning the level of damages.
this didn’t happen. Pell says that he received legal advice that the church ought to put poor Mr Ellis ” to proof”, making the victim have to go thru the agony, expense and uncertainty of formal litigation, which is what occurred
it seems to me that, if the lawyers had been told that it was likely the claims of abuse were correct, then to advise their client to put the victim to proof would be an ethical issue and Corrs ought to be asked to answer that complaint
If in fact Corrs did provide the correct advice ( which is inconsistent with what Pell has given evidence about then, that just makes the role of pell that much worse
all very troubling
The Internet never forgets:
https://web.archive.org/web/20030527160009/http://www.catholic.org.au/statements/2002_oct14b.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20030525043631/http://www.catholic.org.au/statements/pell_judgement.htm
Thanks Jock. I have just updated the above post and sent the below email to the Royal Commission.
From: Shane Dowling [mailto:shanedowling@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, 28 March 2014 3:59 PM
To: ‘contact@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au’
Subject: Southwell QC report into sexual abuse by George Pell of 12-year-old-boy
Dear Sir/Madam
Please find attached a copy of the report by the retired Victorian Supreme Court judge, Mr A.J. Southwell Q.C. who in 2002 investigated an alleged sexual assault of a 12 year-old-boy by George Pell. This obviously needs to be re-opened by the Royal Commission. Otherwise it will always be the big white elephant in the room when anyone talks about the Royal Commission. People will ask: Why didn’t the Royal Commission investigate the Southwell report into Pell?
Regards
Shane Dowling
Kangaroo Court of Australia
Ph 0411 238 704
Too late now unless they revoke his passport which I cannot see happening. A Royal Commission cannot compel anyone to attend that is not a resident of Australia and from Monday Pell will be a resident of Vatican City.
Thank you for these links. The link to Broken Rites http://www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/ also provides very good information.
Given the enquiry was paid for by the catholic church in 2002 wouldn’t it be more appropriate to actually now bring the evidence before the court to ensure no possible conflict of interest. As can be seen from the stories on the Broken Rites site the victims have suffered immeasurable damage. Having been in catholic boarding school in the early sixties I find it so hard to believe that the truth is finally surfacing. But the problem still continues – the hierarchy of the catholic church have come out in support of Pell – how can the victims ever get any closure.
The Holy See told Polish prosecutors that its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Polish Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, is covered by diplomatic immunity and that the Vatican does not extradite its citizens.
Will george Pell become a citizen of the entity known as Vatican City? If yes how does that coexist with his Australian citizenship? You cannot serve 2 masters impartially and he is compromised by serving 3 masters, The Church, Vatican City and Australia.
This person will get to Rome and disappear into the 1 square mile of the richest “state” on earth bar none! He perjures himself with impunity because he knows Vatican will not extradite, Australian Federal Police should be waiting at the airport for this sub-human and arrest him.
The Royal Commission says the right words but I don’t believe the outcome will be mass arrest and incarceration of criminals, too many sticky fingers in the pie and the Mad Monk Abbott will make sure his “good friend” Pell will never face a court here.
I would like to know why child protection bodies like UNICEF haven’t questioned the Vatican City over their age of consent laws, world wide the age of consent is 16-18, so why the hell is the age of consent 12 in the Vatican city, if that doesn’t make a huge statement as to the desires and attitude of the Catholic Church, I don’t know what does.
P.O.P.E = President Of Pedophiles Elite.
“UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL”
world wide the age of consent is 16-18,
Sorry but that is not the case. There are plenty of places where the age of consent is 14 and even lower, even amongst Western nations. Up until 1929 the legal age for a girl to marry with her parents permission in Australia was 12.
Pedophiles are the lowest creatures on earth but on the other side of the coin, it is ridiculous that a person can be on a sex offender register for life for consensual sex with a person the day before their 16th birthday whereas if they waited another 24 hours it would not even be a crime at all.
There has to be discretion in cases available so that stupid mistakes don’t place young people in the same basket as people like those before the Royal Commission.
We have an extradition treaty with Italy,as the Vatican is a separate state do we have a treaty with the Holy See?
The Pope has stated that Bishops who reassign pedophiles should resign as reported by Associated Press /New York Times article on the 18th of February 2016.
Its important the truth prevails in this matter and all people able to show evidence or proof are called up in court so the truth prevails