Abuse Case Handling Unfair, Says Pell

Sky News
March 26, 2014

http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=961394

Cardinal George Pell says the Catholic church didn't deal fairly with the victim of a pedophile priest 'from a Christian point of view', but in a legal sense it did nothing improper.

The church's most senior cleric in Australia has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse that while mistakes were made in defending a court case brought by former altar boy John Ellis, he was consoled by a legal ruling protecting the church's property trustees from being sued.

'From a Christian point of view, leaving aside the legal dominion, I don't think we did deal fairly,' the former Archbishop of Sydney told the commission in Sydney on Wednesday.

'One of the few consolations, if that's what I've got from this sorry mess, is that the court of appeal unanimously endorsed the view that the trustees were not responsible in this case.'

The commission has heard the archdiocese of Sydney has property and cash worth $1.2 billion.

Mr Ellis was abused by a priest from the age of 13-to-17.

He sued the church but lost in 2007, when a court ruled the trustees which controlled church property weren't liable.

Dr Pell appointed law firm Corrs Chambers Wesgarth to handle the case, telling the commission he wanted more control than he would have had by leaving it to the church's insurers.

Dr Pell told the commission he instructed lawyers to defend the case so that litigants would 'think clearly' about the advantages of not going to court.

The commission heard the church refused to make a counter-offer to Mr Ellis after he sought $750,000 and the matter went to court.

Dr Pell blamed advice from his lawyers, despite endorsing the strategy himself.

Corrs then disputed in court that the abuse had occurred, despite the church having previously accepted that it had happened.

Church lawyers cross-examined Mr Ellis over a number of days.

Dr Pell said he regretted the action.

'I regret that. I was told that it was a legally proper tactic,' he said.

The church subsequently pursued Mr Ellis for costs, despite a psychiatrist assessing Mr Ellis as being in a fragile mental state.

The inquiry continues.