Cardinal George Pell appeals child sex abuse convictions

The most senior Catholic found guilty of child sex abuse began his appeal in an Australian court on Wednesday against his convictions on charges of molesting two choir boys in a cathedral more than 20 years ago as hundreds of worshippers streamed out from masses.

Australian Cardinal George Pell, 77, appeared in the Victoria state Court of Appeal wearing a cleric's collar for the hearing that is set to be heard by three judges on Wednesday and Thursday.

He has been held in a Melbourne prison since he was sentenced in March to six years in prison, where he is under special protective custody because pedophiles are considered at higher risk of being harmed by other prisoners.

The former finance minister to Pope Francis was convicted by a unanimous Victoria county court jury in December of orally raping a 13-year-old choir boy and indecently dealing with the boy and his 13-year-old friend in Melbourne's St. Patrick's Cathedral in the late 1990s. Pell had become archbishop of Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city, only months before.

One of Pell's victims died of a heroin overdose in 2014 at the age of 31, apparently without making any accusation of abuse. State law prevents victims of sexual assault from being publicly identified.

For months, court orders had prevented publication of the details of that trial and an earlier trial on similar charges that had ended in September with a deadlocked jury.

Witnesses dispute offences

Pell's lawyer Bret Walker told Justices Anne Ferguson, Chris Maxwell and Mark Weinberg on Wednesday that the main ground for appeal was that the jury could not have found Pell guilty beyond reasonable doubt, based on the evidence.

In written submissions, Pell's lawyers argue that more than 20 prosecution witnesses who had an official role in the Sunday mass in 1996, after which Pell molested the boys in a rear room over the course of five or six minutes, gave evidence that the offences did not or could not have occurred.

"This evidence constituted a catalogue of at least 13 solid obstacles in the path of a conviction," the submissions said.

"No matter what view was taken of the complainant as a witness, it was simply not open to a jury to accept his words beyond reasonable doubt," they added.

Prof. Jeremy Gans, who heads Melbourne Law School and is an expert on Victoria criminal law, said Pell had a strong chance of winning the appeal on the ground that the verdicts were "unreasonable."

If the appeal judges rule that the verdict is unsafe on the evidence, Pell would be acquitted and would not have to be retried. But Gans suspects the case could end up in the High Court, Australia's final appeals court.

"I think he's likely to win on the unsafe verdict ground," Gans said Tuesday. "I'm sure whoever loses in the Court of Appeal is going to try to appeal in the High Court. Once it gets to the High Court, things get really unpredictable. They're the least predictable court in Australia."

Pell's lawyers have also said they will argue that the trial judge erred in not allowing them to use a video graphic in their closing address. They said the graphic would demonstrate that the crimes that were alleged would have been impossible.

A third ground details an alleged "fundamental irregularity" in the trial, in that Pell was not arraigned — asked if he pleaded guilty or not guilty — in front of the chosen jury.

A victory on either of those grounds could result in Pell being retried. But he would likely be freed on bail until his third trial.

The Court of Appeal hears more challenges to the severity of sentences than applications like Pell's to have convictions overturned.

The Sentencing Advisory Council, a state government-funded advisory body, found last year that of the 230 appeals heard against Victoria court decisions in the 2013-14 fiscal year, only 49 were lodged by defendants solely against verdicts. The research did not show how many of those appeals against convictions succeeded.

In appeals against the severity of sentences, 29 per cent of defendants succeeded, while 70 per cent of prosecution appeals convinced the Court of Appeal to deliver tougher sentences.

The Vatican has launched its own investigation into the convictions against Pell, who remains Australia's highest-ranking Catholic.