AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph
Cardinal George Pell tells Royal Commission he never told church lawyers to deny sex abuse of altar boy John Ellis
JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH MARCH 26, 2014
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.”
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