AUSTRALIA
The Australian
TESS LIVINGSTONE
The Australian
June 25, 2017
Victoria Police has been warned not to charge Cardinal George Pell over alleged child sexual abuse to clear the air, or to stage a show trial in response to intense public interest and anger over clerical sex abuse in general.
Lawyer Robin Speed, president of the Rule of Law Institute of Australia said prosecutors should act against Cardinal Pell only if they were fully satisfied about the quality of the evidence. “They should not act in response to the baying of a section of the mob,’’ he said.
Retired High Court judge Ian Callinan QC said he was “always concerned about the impact of pre-trial publicity to contaminate a trial’’ in high-profile cases and about the capacity of judges to dispel the prejudices it caused in the minds of potential jurors.
Mr Callinan said widespread media emphasis on investigative agencies “getting scalps’’ did not help the legal process. “Pre-trial by media is a serious problem,’’ he said.
Mr Speed said that if the cardinal was charged and found innocent the drawn out conduct of the investigation over two years could warrant a judicial inquiry.
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