A full bench of the High Court of Australia has quashed the conviction of Cardinal George Pell, meaning he will walk free from prison. "The High Court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant's guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted, and ordered that the convictions be quashed and that verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place," the judgement read.
In December 2018 a jury found him guilty of the sexual penetration of a child under the age of 16 and four counts of committing an indecent act with or in the presence of a child. Previous court hearings of Pell's involved supporters and opponents of the cardinal gathering outside the court. But on Tuesday the High Court of Australia sat virtually due to coronavirus social distancing measures.
Please don’t give him the space on the news. People don’t want to hear it. He is an abomination
Shocking that they can set aside a juries decision who had the evidence in front of them. Why bother having a court case? Unless it was all a set up? Pell still has many cases to answer to. We will all be watching him.
Australia is supposed to be a rich, first world democracy that has many privileges that most countries do not have, BUT when a high profile, right wing, paedophile, cardinal is set free it becomes clear how damaged Australian society actually is! This is betrayal! pell fraud
SBS Gee the Catholic church wouldn't of had some influence over this now would they $$$$Evil bastards
Put this rock spider back behind bars . This is a travesty of justice for all his victims.
Fuck this.
justice at last - the ABC led the media pack as the last few days there was a documentary on pedophile priests and then 2 'new accusers' dug up and now scratching around for redacting and civil cases
We can only hope he gets corona
I feel sick.
He’ll never be free in society. Get ready for self isolation as a way of life, creep....
Unbelievable
About time!
Sorry to the victims and their families... The decision does not in my mind prove Pell is innocent...
Interesting to see all the pedophile enablers coming out in support of Pell. We need to take note, and keep a close eye on them if they are ever around children.
SBS High court in Australia, justice, police, vicroads there all a fucking joke. No respect for none of them.
Don't worry Derryn Hunch will keep track of him.
More victims are now coming forward. That means new charges against him no doubt
He wasn’t deemed innocent. The court just ruled that there was an error.
🤮🤯😔
The law may have won but I believe justice has lost. Having his conviction quashed does NOT mean Pell is innocent, it just means the High Court doesn't think the evidence was beyond a reasonable doubt.
Amazing what money can do, another Rock Spider walks free. I’m so disappointed & disgusted at the moment with our judicial system.
It is a sad state of affairs that to many derive their limited understanding of the law from emotional appeals from the talking box. Go and get your head around the actual case and you may come away with a different point of view.
This is astonishing. Given a 7-0 decision by the High Court, it raises some very serious questions about the impartiality in the sentencing court in Melbourne. It has been said that the Andrews Govt has overloaded left wing Judges into the Victorian Justice System.
Shame, shame, shame....what a disgraceful judicial decision.
And he do what he is good at doing! Abuse children!! 👎👎
Finally justice has been served and a good man is set free. Praise the lord
Rumbling of Roman Army 01_The Destruction of Jerusalem - Great Controversy (1911) Ellen G. White
Disgusting! No justice, our legal system is absolutely broken. I’d say it is a joke but that there is nothing funny about this! More victim shaming and blaming.
Catholic Church hang your head in shame
HOW CORRUPT IS THE AUSTRALIAN COURT SYSTEM.
What a load of shit. The Catholic Church had so much power over families back then, they (the Bishops, Cardinals, Priests etc) most definitely took advantage of infants. The georgepell pell ‘s of the world should take a mandatory lie detector test then locked up! Sad day 2day.
🤬🤬
Very disappointing. My heart goes out to the victims. Let’s see where the Catholic Church decides to hide pell now.
Appalling
Disgraceful
Meanwhile Assange rotting in prison.
Unbelievable that a evil person can get off! Slap in the face for all the poor victims! Bloody corruption! Corona virus to that evil man!
Why am I not surprised the judicial system in this country is corrupt
Wow, never believed Pell would be cleared! Shame on our justice system.
What a kick in the guts to all people who have been victims of sexual assault 💔💔💔😢
Power over justice!😳 Same old, same old!😢🤮
Ok, he's guilty, then he's guilty then he's innocent Enough already, move on.
What a joke
He’s such a narcissist that when he goes to hell, he’ll just assume he’s there to redeem the souls of others. Let’s hope the civil cases will destroy the monster.
This is a freakin joke...
Send him straight back to Italy then 😡 let the judges accompany him
While you wasted your time on attacking Pell the real perpetrators are still out there
First sack Paul Kennedy from ABC incompetence journalist full stop ...
SBS
PELL NOT GUILTY ACCUSER A LIAR.. JURY VERDICT WRONG. Brett Walker paid $thousands by Catholic Church. lock down stops protests. PELL resurrected this Easter. Home to Rome and safety. 🇦🇺👎
How he sleeps at night.. I can’t imagine.
So, its probably past time we have a serious rethink on the power and privileged we give some religions in this country.
Now leave him be!!
This acquittal is a blight on the Australian nation The people should not stand for it. Nothing short of diabolical. The Australian people should not stand for this !
To all of his victims! We support you. We believe you. We are with you!!
Makes a mockery of our judicial system and sends a strong message to all victims. Remain silent. Sad day
Unless the Pope-mobile can fly I think he’ll be seeing some more courtrooms and cells soon
The threat to democracy continues. High court overules juries decisions & lets Pell go !!! I stand with abuse victims & against the power of any place of faith & power. Now we MUST SEE THE REDACTED TEXT from the Royal Commission for truth.
Praise the Lord 🙏🏻♥️
Obviously the Australian judicial system has made the other childabuse victims shut up. We will see more of the same behaviour of Pell in the future. Catholics who goes to church should be worried as they will be dealing with these unleashed monsters not other ppl. auspol
What a disgrace
I stand with the survivors today and everyday into the future. istandwiththesurvivors
Sad day when pedophiles can walk free.
SBS Very sad news for his victims, where is their justice
Hopefully his victims get some solace, he's had a taste of prison, his reputation and career shot, and he'll never be able to get near children again 🤞
Guilty as Sin. My heart goes out to the victims of his abuse, and their Families. The victims of all sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church are having a very dark day. Made further worse by the fact he’s out on a technical reason. Thus, not further proving his guilt.
Maybe they coild arrest him now for the other 2 offences revealed by Sarah Ferguson om the ABC.
Well he won't be walking the streets.
Must be an ultra conservative judge....What a national let down of our judicial system. The people only count when it comes to taxes and votes
Proof there is no god.
Filth. How must his victims feel about this? It won’t be the end of it because there are more victims watching this very closely waiting to see some justice. The gates will open now.
This is a disgrace to our legal system that does not bring justice to victims. In fact it makes legal system a very sick joke. So many have been impacted by Pells behaviour. I feel their sorrow . No justice in Australia !!
Just another example of how money and power can overturn any sort of conviction...
SBS This is how justice works.
He is now a sex offender for life
no matter he's now pedo priest according to my kids and their friends 🤣
Disgusting.
DrRimmer My understanding is that the HC decision is not about whether it happened or not. It was about whether the right standard of proof was employed, a distinct issue. Not off the hook by a long shot.
That’s an outrage
Maybe a nice cruise on the Ruby Princess back to Italy for Pell. I’m sure the Australian taxpayer wouldn’t mind paying for this one.
Graças a Deus❤️
All I can say is the Judges of the HIGH COURT IS A JOKE AND THE FULL BENCH OF THE COURT MUST TO BE IN CLINED TO DO THOSE DISGRACEFUL THINGS. I MY EYE HE IS GUILTY AS SIN AND WILL BE ALWAYS THAT WAY. THE HIGH COURT IS A DISGRACEFUL DISHONEST LYING COURT AND THERE IS NO JUSTICE
Lucky all the kids are being kept inside right now
Please be brave for others if Pell abused you and come forward. childsbuse by priests
Justice is served
SBS Great news - thanks be to God and to our Judicial system.
👍🙏
Always considered that this conviction was fragile, I would have gladly seen him hang if he was guilty: Let his God now judge him
He has more cases lined up though so it ain't over for him yet. Am I right?
The level of contempt and anger that I have for the courts and that judge is beyond comprehension
How much bad news can we cope with right now. Our thoughts and feelings are with all of those affected by this announcement pell
George Pell was guilty of turning a blind eye. For that he will always be guilty and must take the blame. But for the 'supposed' assault, the right decision was made
What.
Boo!
We can only hope that due to his age, he gets Coronavirus. 😡
😡👎
Was always likely to happen. A conviction on the basis of essentially nothing beyond the alleged victim's testimony can't stand. That's too low a standard.
The highest court in the land has let its nation down. Such a sad day.
Pedo judges are looking after their own
Coronavirus, bushfires, climate change, PELL🤬
paedophilePell
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