They say the good die young , he will live to be 100 for sure. The paedophile protector was always going to use the chicken/cowards defence. Who would believe a word he says anyway. The man is an embarrassment to all genuine catholics as well as Australia.
George Pell 'still too unwell' to fly to Australia for child abuse royal commission
Cardinal again requests to appear via video link as lawyers tend medical documents saying that flying from the Vatican could pose a risk to his health
Cardinal George Pell in the Vatican. His lawyer said he would be willing to appear via video link in the royal commission hearings ‘as soon as possible’. Photograph: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Friday 5 February 2016 11.27 AEDTLast modified on Friday 5 February 201611.29 AEDT
Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, has applied to give evidence to the child abuse royal commission via video link from Rome rather than appearing in person, leaving victims angered and disappointed.
At a directions hearing in Sydney on Friday, Pell’s lawyers tended medical documents to the commission that said Pell was still unwell and flying could pose a risk to his health. Pell again requested to appear via video link, with his lawyer, Allan Myers, saying the cardinal would be willing to do so “as soon as possible”.
Pell had been due to give evidence to the royal commission into institutional responses into child sexual abuse at the second stage of the Ballarat hearings late last year. But in December the commission heard that Pell was too unwell to appear at the hearings before Melbourne’s county court.
He requested to appear via video link from Rome instead.
Cardinal Pell told to attend child abuse inquiry after video link request denied
At the time, the chair of the commission, Justice Peter McClellan, refused Pell’s request. He said the commission would wait until February to see if Pell’s condition improved so that he could fly to
Australia and face the commission during hearings due at the end of February.
McClellan said given Pell was due to give evidence on complicated matters, including about abuse that occurred in Ballarat, and the response of the Archdiocese of Melbourne to reports of abuse in its institutions, it was preferable Pell appear in person at a later date than video video link.
McClellan will announce his decision on Monday.
Pell, who supported notorious paedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale during his first court appearance for child sex offences in 1993, has always denied knowing of any child abuse occurring in
Ballarat while he worked there as a priest and with a clerical group called the College of Consultors during the 1970s and 80s. Pell also spent time living with Ridsdale in 1973 but has said he had no idea he was a paedophile.
Stephen Woods, who was abused by Ridsdale and the convicted paedophile brother Robert Charles Best while a student at St Alipius primary school, said he was dismayed but not surprised by Pell’s application. “I knew this was going to happen,” he said.
McClellan adjourned the hearings to allow lawyers for the victims to view Pell’s medical documents and respond.
