The lawyers for the prosecution in the case that is taking place in Australia against Cardinal George Pell, for psychological damage and alleged sexual abuse, of which he was acquitted, said Wednesday that the cases should continue to be tried.
George Pell died last night in Rome, at the age of 81, after undergoing hip surgery.
The father of one of the children who accused Pell of sexual abuse in the 1990s is asking for financial compensation for psychological damage, and the criminal process that tried the case in 2018 acquitted the cardinal in 2020.
Lisa Flynn, director of the Shine law firm that represents the victim’s father, indicated, through a statement, that she will maintain “the process against the church”, also referring to the possible assets left by Pell, in order to obtain a possible compensation.
In the same document, Flynn says that “there is still a large amount of evidence to support the accusation” and that, therefore, he will ask the court to rule, “when appropriate.”
In August 2022, the High Court for the Australian region of Victoria rejected a request by the Catholic Church to “stop the proceedings”.
The accuser, who appears in the court documents with the initials RWQ, assures that he suffers psychological problems after learning of the alleged abuses of which his son was a victim in the 1990s.
The victim, RWQ’s son, died in 2014 due to “an accidental (medication) overdose.”
This is one of the cases against Cardinal Pell, who served as the Vatican’s State Secretary for the Economy.
In 2017, Pell was indicted for five sexual assaults committed in St. Patrick’s when he was Archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.
Pell was found guilty in December 2018 of six years in prison for the acts committed in Melbourne, the sentence being confirmed in August 2019.
In April 2020, the Australian High Court, the country’s highest judicial body, overturned the sentence that had convicted the senior church member.
Cardinal Pell, who was the third most important figure in the Vatican, spent three months in prison before being released.
Source: TSF
