Cardinal George Pell Tells Royal Commission He Never Told Church Lawyers to Deny Sex Abuse of Altar Boy John Ellis

Daily Telegraph
March 26, 2014

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/cardinal-george-pell-tells-royal-commission-he-never-told-church-lawyers-to-deny-sex-abuse-of-altar-boy-john-ellis/story-fni0cx4q-1226865127247

George Pell appearing at the Royal Commission today. Source: News Corp Australia

WHAT is the difference between disputing and denying? Quite a lot, according to Cardinal George Pell today.

He said that he had never told the church’s lawyers to deny that former altar boy John Ellis has been sexually abused by a priest when he sued the Sydney Archdiocese. He only accepted legal advice that they make Mr Elllis “prove” it.

Cardinal Pell said he had already accepted a Catholic Church report that Mr Ellis was telling the truth about his abuse as a teenager but Mr Ellis was questioned for four days about it during the case in 2004.

The cardinal said it had been a legal strategy suggested to him by the church’s lawyers, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, to “put Mr Ellis to the proof” of his claims of sexual abuse.

Counsel assisting the royal commission, Gail Furness SC, said: “The effect of disputing the abuse occurred was precisely the same on Mr Ellis, was it not, as denying the abuse occurred?”

Cardinal Pell: “I would not draw that conclusion.”

Ms Furness; “You are making a distinction, are you, between disputing that something occurred and denying it?”

Cardinal Pell: “Yes, very definitely.”

Ms Furness asked him what he thought the effect on Mr Ellis would be when the church he had believed in all his life and had gone to for help when he confronted the abuse, denied it and cross-examined him about it in court.

Cardinal Pell: “I regret that.”

Ms Furness: “Only regret it cardinal?”

Cardinal Pell: “What else could I say? It was wrong that it went to such an extent. I was told it was a legally proper tactic, strategy.”

Cardinal Pell is in his second day in the witness box. If his evidence does not end today, he will be recalled tomorrow afternoon.

He is expected to then head for Rome and the Vatican where he has been appointed head of their finances.

The hearing continues in Sydney

Mr Pell earlier admitted that the Catholic Church was not entirely Christian in the way it fought the sex-abuse claim of Mr Ellis.

Mr Pell told the royal commission into child sex abuse that the church’s lawyers had been told to “vigorously” fight the claim so any other abuse victims would think twice before taking on the church.

He said that he had no idea that John Ellis had been so badly damaged by his years of abuse by a Catholic priest as a teenager because Mr Ellis, then a lawyer, “presented well”.

Mr Ellis lost the 2004 case in a manner and a decision which is being examined by the royal commission. The outcome was that the Catholic Church was not a legal entity and could not be sued.

Quizzed about whether the church had acted as a “model citizen” in an honest and fair manner towards Mr Ellis, Cardinal Pell said that had been his ambition but that it had failed.

“From a Christian point of view leaving aside the legal dimension, I don’t think that we did deal fairly (with Mr Ellis),” he said, on his second day in the witness box.

The church has never been successfully sued in any Australian court.

Cardinal Pell has accepted that the legal giants Corrs Chambers Westgarth, who acted for the Sydney Archdiocese against Mr Ellis, had been instructed to vigorously and strenuously defend his case in 2004.

“Part of that wording, vigorously and strenuously, was at least in my mind, an attempt to encourage people not to go into litigation,” he said.

“We would prefer people to deal with it not through litigation.”

Counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, said: “So by having a vigorous defence that we show potential plaintiffs that they should think twice before litigating against the church?”

Cardinal Pell: “That they should think clearly, they should consider the advantages in not going to litigation.”

Part of the lawyers’ instructions were to deny that Mr Ellis had even been sexually abused despite a church report concluding he had been telling the truth.

“He presented so well. He was such a senior lawyer. He was represented by two high level lawyers. I understood insufficiently just how wounded he was,” Cardinal Pell said.

The cardinal has admitted that he was wrong not to negotiate when Mr Ellis offered to settle his claim for $750,000 at the start of the litigation but maintained that he was never told of Mr Elli’s earlier offer to settle for just $100,000.

The commission hearing in Sydney continues.