MELBOURNE - Former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell lost an appeal against his conviction for sexually abusing two 13-year-old choir boys and will remain in prison for at least another three years, an Australian court ruled on Wednesday.Pell appealed his conviction to Victoria’s Court of Appeal on three grounds, but mainly on the argument that the jury’s verdict was unreasonable based on the evidence at the trial.
“As might have been expected, there were some things which he could remember and many things which he could not. And his explanations of why that was so had the ring of truth,” said the two judges.They also dismissed Pell’s argument that sexual abuse would have been physically impossible due to his heavy robes, saying “the robes were capable of being manoeuvred in a way that might be described as being moved or pulled to one side or pulled apart”.
Outside the court in Melbourne, small groups of activists and victims of abuse cheered once they heard the verdict. The three Victorian Court of Appeal judges only permitted the defence to pursue one of those grounds, allowing Pell’s team to argue that the verdict was unreasonable because there was insufficient evidence for a jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of his guilt.
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