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Police are investigating a new child sex abuse allegation levelled at Australian cardinal, George Pell.
The new allegation relates to an incident in the 1970s, when Pell was a priest in Ballarat, Victoria.
At a Victoria police media conference on Tuesday this week, deputy commissioner Shane Patton was asked for his response to allegations police had a vendetta against Pell.
In reply, Patton said: “I don’t have any comments to make at all in respect to Cardinal Pell.”
Pell has always strongly denied all sexual abuse allegations against him and was released from jail last Tuesday after being acquitted by Australia’s High Court on historical child sexual abuse charges.
In a 7-0 decision, the High Court said the jury should have held a reasonable doubt as to his guilt.
The 78-year old spent well over a year in jail after being convicted by a jury in December 2018, however, hel may also face a number of civil cases.
Some people are calling for the federal attorney general, Christian Porter, to release redacted sections of the Australian Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse’s final report that related to Pell.
However, a new criminal investigation may place the release of the commission report in doubt, as the redacted section examines the actions of Catholic church authorities in Ballarat.
This includes the time when Pell was a priest in the region.
Pell was cross-examined by the commission in 2016 on what he knew about the notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, who was a friend of Pells at the time in Ballarat.
Pell responded: “It was a sad story and of not much interest to me. I had no reason to turn my mind to the evils Ridsdale had perpetrated.”
Source
- The Guardian
- Image: TVNZ
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