Significant lead in case against Cardinal George Pell as evidence brief is returned to Office of Public Prosecutions for second review

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Shannon Deery, Herald Sun
February 5, 2017

A BRIEF of evidence in a sex abuse investigation of Cardinal George Pell has been returned to prosecutors for review.

Police had first asked prosecutors to review the brief last year, but Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion, SC, returned it without making a recommendation, saying that any decision on potential charges was a police call.

On Monday, Natalie Webster, on behalf of Victoria Police, said that investigators had ­delivered the brief to the Office of Public Prosecutions for ­consideration.

Sano taskforce investigated multiple allegations, including that the cardinal abused up to 10 boys in 1978-2001, while a priest in Ballarat and while archbishop of Melbourne.

The cardinal, 75, has strenuously denied the allegations.

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