Perth Catholic Archbishop Timothy Costelloe says he is “shocked and distressed” by Cardinal George Pell’s guilty verdict on child sex charges. “I am deeply conscious of the distress this will cause for many, and the sense of justice achieved it will bring to others,” he wrote in a message to the Catholic community published on the Perth Archdiocese’s website. He noted Cardinal Pell continued to “vehemently protest his innocence” and his intention to appeal and said it would be “inappropriate and inflammatory” for him to make any further comment. “Sexual abuse of children and young people is an abhorrent crime wherever, whenever and by whomever it is perpetrated,” he said. “As I have done on many other occasions I would again strongly advise anyone who has allegations of child sexual abuse against any officials, clergy or otherwise, connected to the Catholic Church to report these matters to the police. “The Catholic Western Australian Office of Professional Standards is able to assist anyone who seeks their assistance to do so.”<doc-sep>Melbourne, Australia (CNN) Cardinal George Pell has joined the ranks of other shamed Catholic priests who betrayed the trust of children who believed they were men of God. The Vatican treasurer, now a convicted pedophile , was a close adviser to the Pope, personally appointed by Francis as the Vatican's minister of Economy and, until October, was a member of the Pope's Council of nine advisers. As a victim of sex abuse, his accuser can't be named under Australian law, but his testimony will be felt at the very heart of the Vatican, which for decades has been accused of ignoring, covering up and denying sex abuse was committed within its ranks. In December, a jury found Pell abused two choirboys in the priest's sacristy of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne one Sunday in the 1990s, when Pell was the city's archbishop. St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne where Pell sexually abused the two boys in the late 1990s. Only one victim is alive to tell his story, having kept his abuse secret for decades. The second boy died of a drug overdose, apparently having never divulged what had happened to him. The existence of the trial couldn't be revealed until now due to an Australian suppression order. Pell was sentenced to six years in prison on March 13, with a non-parole period of three years and eight months. The conviction is the result of years of police work, including a special task force set up to solely investigate claims against the cardinal. It also follows a damning report by a royal commission into institutional child abuse in Australia, which alleged more than 1,800 Catholic priests, brothers, lay people, and religious sisters across the country had assaulted thousands of children over the past 65 years. In a statement released after reporting restrictions were lifted, the Vatican said Pell's conviction was "painful news, which we are aware has shocked many people, not only in Australia." The Holy See had "maximum respect for the Australian judicial authorities ... We now await the outcome of the appeal process, remembering that Cardinal Pell has reiterated his innocence and has the right to defend himself until the final grade of judgment. Pell's conviction comes amid attempts by the Vatican to begin making amends for decades of abuse by priests across the world. Over the past week, the Vatican held a historic summit on sexual abuse by clergy. Speaking at the last day on Sunday, Pope Francis described pedophile priests as "tools of Satan." Pope Francis signs a cricket bat he received from Cardinal George Pell, at the Vatican on October 29, 2015. 'The evil of pedophilia' Pell's fall from grace may have been sealed with the pronouncement of the word "guilty," but for advocates of Australia's church abuse victims it was a long time coming. In 2012, calls for a national inquiry finally produced results after a senior detective from the state of New South Wales broke ranks and wrote an open letter to the premier, in the Newcastle Herald. "I have investigated so many sexual assaults in my 35 years of policing I've lost count. Having spent most of those years at the coal face I have seen the worst society can dredge up, particularly the evil of pedophilia within the Catholic Church," Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox wrote at the time. Four days later, then Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a royal commission into institutional child abuse, declaring that "there have been too many revelations of adults who have averted their eyes from this evil." At the time, Cardinal Pell suggested that the media had waged a "persistent press campaign" and "general smears" against the Catholic Church. He denied there was a coverup. "(Although) there is a press campaign focused largely on us, it does not mean that we are largely the principal culprits," he told reporters in 2012. He said he hoped the commission would show the public that the Catholic Church wasn't the worst offender. Unfortunately for Pell, it did. After five years of submissions, the final report, released in 2017, concluded that tens of thousands of children had been abused in Australia "over generations" in a range of institutions from children's homes to sporting clubs and schools. "We will never know the true number," reads the report. "Whatever the number, it is a national tragedy, perpetrated over generations." Out of all the testimonies heard by the royal commission, almost 60% said they were abused inside a religious institution. Of that number, more than 60% said of those were abused within the Catholic Church. Special task force formed Such was the flood of allegations following the announcement that Victoria Police assigned a special taskforce to investigate the claims, even before the commission had released its final report. The SANO Task Force started the job of chasing leads in 2013. Operation Tethering was formed at the same time to focus on claims specifically relating to Cardinal Pell. When the investigation began, there were no new public allegations against Pell. In June 2015, however, a man walked into Victoria Police Center and told Acting Sergeant Christopher Reed he'd been abused as a choirboy in the late 1990s by none other than the then archbishop of Melbourne, George Pell. He told how the then-newly inaugurated archbishop had just said mass when he caught the boy and his friend drinking wine in the priest's sacristy at the back of Melbourne's St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was there the man said Pell exposed himself to the two young boys and forced the accuser to perform oral sex on him. It wasn't the first time Pell had been accused of acting inappropriately with children, though it's the only time an accuser's claims have led to a trial and conviction. In 2002, an inquiry chaired by former judge Alec Southwell examined allegations that Pell, then a student priest, had sexually abused a young boy at a camp on Philip Island in 1962. Pell denied the boy's claims. The judge found Pell, then archbishop of Sydney, gave a trustworthy account, but so too did his accuser. In the end, he decided there wasn't enough evidence either way to take the matter further. It isn't the only time Pell has avoided trial over lack of evidence. A second trial due to be held this April was called off by the crown prosecutor after the judge ruled a number of witnesses couldn't be called. News of the December conviction had been kept under seal, and it can only now be revealed. A suppression order was issued by the judge to avoid prejudicing the second trial. JUST WATCHED CNN reporter: Pell conviction is absolutely explosive Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH CNN reporter: Pell conviction is absolutely explosive 01:00 During pre-trial hearings, the crown prosecutor described the accusations against Pell. The accuser at the second trial, who can't be named under Australian law, had claimed Pell indecently assaulted him at the Eureka swimming pool in the regional city of Ballarat in the 1970s, when Pell was the local priest. The accuser says Pell grabbed his genitals underwater as they played a game that involved the priest throwing boys in the pool. They'd climb onto his shoulders and jump off, or he'd catapult them into the air by clasping his hands underwater to give them a push up by their feet. The crown prosecutor opted not to proceed with the trial after Chief Judge Peter Kidd ruled against the inclusion of testimony from other boys who claimed Pell's hands came uncomfortably close to their genitals. Other charges were dropped during a committal hearing in 2018 ahead of the two trials. One witness died and another withdrew due to illness, weakening the prosecution's case. Australia's then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, right, and Cardinal Pell watch as the World Youth Day Cross and Icon enters the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra on February 18, 2008. The Melbourne Response program The shock of Pell's conviction was even greater given that at the time of his crimes in the 1990s, he was launching a program to deal with accusations of sex abuse in the Church.<doc-sep>MELBOURNE, Australia — Cardinal George Pell, the highest-ranking Roman Catholic leader ever convicted of sexual abuse, will not face a second trial on an additional round of assault allegations involving young boys. The earlier verdict was unsealed on Tuesday only after prosecutors decided they could not proceed with the second trial after a legal setback. The decision came just days before the cardinal was set to be sentenced for abusing two 13-year-old choirboys more than two decades ago. Cardinal Pell, 77, was found guilty in December of sexually assaulting the boys. But a judge barred news outlets from publishing anything about the verdict, citing concerns that coverage might influence a jury in the second trial.<doc-sep>
The convictions were confirmed the same week that Francis concluded his extraordinary summit of Catholic leaders summoned to Rome for a tutorial on preventing clergy sexual abuse and protecting children from predator priests. The jury convicted Pell of abusing two 13-year-old boys whom he had caught swigging sacramental wine in a rear room of Melbourne’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral in late 1996, as hundreds of worshippers were streaming out of Sunday services. Pell, now 77 but 55 at the time, had just been named the most senior Catholic in Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne. The jury also found Pell guilty of indecently assaulting one of the boys in a corridor more than a month later. He faces a potential maximum 50-year prison term after a sentencing hearing that begins on Wednesday. He has foreshadowed an appeal. Pell had maintained his innocence throughout, describing the accusations as “vile and disgusting conduct” that went against everything he believed in. His lawyer Robert Richter had told the jury that only a “mad man” would take the risk of abusing boys in such a public place. He said it was “laughable” that Pell would have been able to expose his penis and force the victim to take it in his mouth, given the cumbersome robes he was wearing. Both he and Chief Judge Peter Kidd urged the jury of eight men and four women not to punish Pell for all the failings of the Catholic Church. “You must not scapegoat Cardinal Pell,” Kidd told the jury. Pell, who walked to and from court throughout his monthlong trial with a crutch under his right arm, was released on bail to undergo surgical knee replacements in Sydney on Dec. 14. Prosecutor Mark Gibson did not oppose bail, saying the surgery would be more easily managed outside the prison system. Kidd warned that the continuing bail was not a sign that the 77-year-old would avoid a prison sentence. The first four offenses occurred at the first or second Solemn Mass that Archbishop Pell celebrated as leader of the magnificent blue-stone century-old cathedral in the center of Melbourne. Pell was wearing his full robes — though not his staff or pointed bishops’ hat — at the time. The now 34-year-old survivor told the court that Pell orally raped him, then crouched and fondled the complainant’s genitals while masturbating. The other victim died of a heroin overdose in 2014 without ever complaining of the abuse, and even denying to his suspicious mother that he had been molested while he was part of the choir. Neither boy can be identified. More than a month later, the complainant testified that Pell pushed him against a cathedral corridor wall after a Mass and squeezed the boy’s genitals painfully before walking away in silence. “I didn’t tell anyone at the time because I didn’t want to jeopardize anything. I didn’t want to rock the boat with my family, my schooling, my life,” the complainant told the jurors. The complainant testified that he feared that making such accusations against a powerful church man would cost him his place in the choir and with it his scholarship to prestigious St. Kevin’s College. Pell pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual penetration of a child under 16 and four counts of willfully committing an indecent act with or in the presence of a child under 16 in late 1996 and early 1997. Pell did not testify at his trial. But the jury saw a video recording of an interview he gave Australian detectives in Rome in 2016 in which he stridently denied the allegations. Pell grimaced, appeared incredulous, distressed, waved his arms over his head and muttered to himself as the detectives detailed the accusations that his victim had leveled against him a year earlier. “The allegations involve vile and disgusting conduct contrary to everything I hold dear and contrary to the explicit teachings of the church which I have spent my life representing,” Pell told police. Richter, Pell’s lawyer, had told the jury that the media had portrayed Pell as the “Darth Vader” of the church, referring to the “Star Wars” character. The complainant testified that he and his friend had run from the procession and back into the cathedral through a side door to, as Gibson said, “have some fun.”