Australian cardinal found guilty of sexual abuse
The former adviser to the pope says he will appeal after he was convicted of abusing two teens more than two decades ago
Melbourne/Vatican City — An Australian court has found Cardinal George Pell, one of the highest-ranking Vatican officials and a former top adviser to Pope Francis, guilty on five charges of child sexual offences committed more than two decades ago against 13-year-old boys. The verdict was made public on Tuesday following the lifting of a court suppression order on the trial, after a second abuse case against Pell — the most senior Catholic clergyman worldwide to be convicted for child sex offences — was dropped by the prosecution. Pell’s lawyers have said they will appeal against the verdict, which embarrassed the Vatican because it became public just two days after a major conference on preventing sex abuse. He had pleaded not guilty to all five charges. In the Vatican’s first response, spokesperson Alessandro Gisotti told reporters the conviction was “painful” for many but that the cardinal had proclaimed his innocence and had the right to “defend himself until last level” of judi...
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