PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE FOR ARCHBISHOP PELL OVERTURNED BY ALLEGATIONS OF ANCIENT CHILD SEX ABUSE

The Australian Council for Civil Liberties (ACCL) has criticised Catholic Church procedures which caused Archbishop George Pell to publicly out himself and then stand aside while Church authorities consider a 40 year old allegation of child sexual abuse against the Archbishop.

“Archbishop Pell is not in contact with the complainant and cannot influence the outcome of the Church investigation against him. He should not publicly have revealed the allegations against him and he most definitely should not have stood aside”,

ACCL President Terry O’Gorman said. Mr O’Gorman said the growing and worrying pattern of naming names when untested and ancient allegations of child sexual abuse were made fundamentally undermined the presumption of innocence.

“Especially given that the complainant in George Pell’s case is not apparently prepared to go to the police, George Pell’s personal reputation can never recover even if he is cleared by an internal Church investigation”, Mr O’Gorman said.

Mr O’Gorman said while people who complained of ancient child sex abuse had a right to be heard, the pressures that forced George Pell to name himself as the subject of a child sex abuse investigation showed how the presumption of innocence had been turned on its head in Australia when it came to allegations of ancient child sex abuse.

“Church and ordinary civil law procedures should be changed so that particularly in relation to sexual allegations, a person cannot be named as the subject of an investigation until a full and exhaustive hearing has been held into the allegations and the accused person has been found guilty”,

Mr O’Gorman said. Mr O’Gorman said that even if George Pell was cleared of the allegation, he would never recover his reputation.

Australian Council for Civil Liberties 21 August 2002