AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury
March 29, 2018
By Jacqueline Le and Megan Neil
A detective who led the historical sex offence investigation into Cardinal George Pell has denied “zeroing in” on Australia’s highest-ranked Catholic.
The police investigation into Pell has come under repeated attack by lawyers during a hearing to determine if the 76-year-old should stand trial.
Robert Richter QC on Thursday said Pell was targeted for “special treatment” by detectives from Sano Taskforce, which investigates historical sex abuse.
While questioning lead investigator Sergeant Christopher Reed, the barrister said a man made horrendous allegations against a nun before alleging Pell committed a sex offence against him.
“Do you say, and I’m not attributing any blame to you, do you say that the allegation against Cardinal Pell was treated like any other allegation?” the barrister asked on Thursday.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.