The Catholic Weekly 12 April 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 12 NEWS 12, April, 2020 Secure a crypt in our popular mausoleum. Contact our Customer Service team on (02) 6204 0200 WODEN CEMETERY MAUSOLEUM Crypts available now Christ the Redeemer www.canberracemeteries.com.au Justice, finally How such a fundamental miscarriage of justice could ever occur demands serious examination IT IS imperative for the future of the Australian criminal jus- tice system, and indeed for the future of Australian democra- cy, that a serious examination of conscience followed by a serious public reckoning take place. The unanimous decision by Australia’s High Court to quash a guilty verdict and en- ter a verdict of “acquitted” in the case of Pell vs The Queen reverses both the incom- prehensible trial conviction of Cardinal George Pell on a charge of “historic sexual abuse” and the equally baf- fling decision to uphold that false verdict by two of the three members of an appel- late court in the State of Victo- ria last August. The High Court’s decision frees an innocent man from the unjust imprisonment to which he has been subjected, restores him to his family and friends, and enables him to resume his important work in and for the Catholic Church. The decision also begins the process of rebuilding in- ternational confidence in Australia’s criminal justice system, which has been badly damaged by the Pell case — although there is much more remedial work to be done on that front, especially in the State of Victoria, Ground Zero of the Pell witch hunt that raged for years and that cul- minated in this tawdry affair. Close students of Pell vs The Queen have known for some time that this case ought never have been brought to trial. The police investigation leading to allegations against the cardinal was conducted in a dubious, indeed sleazy, fashion. The magistrate at the com- mittal hearing (the equivalent of a grand jury proceeding) was under intense pressure to bring to trial a set of charges she knew were very weak. When the case was tried, the Crown prosecutors pro- duced no evidence that the alleged crimes had ever been committed, basing their argu- ment solely on the testimony of the complainant — testi- mony that was inconsistent over time and that has subse- quently been shown to have been deeply flawed. There was no corroborating physical evidence and there were no witnesses to corrobo- rate the charges. To the contrary: those di- rectly involved inMelbourne’s cathedral at the time of the al- leged offenses (some twenty years ago) insisted under oath and during cross-examina- tion that it was impossible for events to have unfolded as the complainant alleged — nei- ther the time-frame used by the prosecution to describe the alleged abuse nor the complainant’s description of the layout of the cathedral sacristy (where the crimes were said to have been com- mitted) made any sense. This extensive testimony in the cardinal’s defence was never seriously dented by the prosecution. Moreover, the sheer impos- sibility that what was alleged to have happened actually happened was subsequently confirmed by objective ob- servers and commentators, including those who held no previous brief for Cardinal Pell (and one who had been a severe critic). Pell vs The Queen was also prosecuted in a way that raised grave doubts about the commitment of the Victorian authorities to such elementa- ry tenets of Anglosphere crim- inal law as the presumption of innocence and the duty of the state to prove its case “beyond a reasonable doubt.” In this regard, Justice Mark Weinberg, the dissenting judge in last summer’s ap- pellate case, made a crucial jurisprudential point while eviscerating his colleagues’ decision to uphold Cardinal Pell’s conviction in August 2019: By making the com- plainant’s credibility the crux of the matter, both the prosecution and Weinberg’s colleagues on the appellate panel rendered it impossible for any defence to be mount- ed. Under this credibility cri- Cardinal George Pell is pictured at the Vatican in June 2017. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/REMO CASILLI, REUTERS The Crown prosecutors produced no evidence that the alleged crimes had ever been committed, basing their argument solely on the testimony of the complainant ... there was no evidence. There were no witnesses ...” George Weigel Cardinal George Pell arrives at the County Court in Melbourne in February 2019. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/DANIEL POCKETT,AAP IMAGES VIA REUTERS CARDINAL P LL ACQUITTED