Inside the George Pell trial
Written for AAP in collaboration with Karen Sweeney and Amber Wilson
This piece has been edited to reflect that Cardinal George Pell was eventually acquitted after a successful High Court appeal.
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A small group of journalists watched and listened patiently as Cardinal George Pell fought his child sexual abuse trial in the Victorian County Court.
For nearly three months, AAP’s court reporters attended every day of Pell’s two trials — but we couldn’t publish a word at the time because of a blanket gag order.
We took notes and prepared a daily rundown of what happened, not knowing when or if those reports would see the light of day.
Pell was accused of sexually assaulting two 13-year-old choirboys after Sunday mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996.
In court, a seemingly endless stream of former choirboys testified, quizzed about their routine at Sunday mass and Pell’s interactions with the choir.
A choir master, priests, a winemaker, an archbishop and a diary-keeping churchgoer were among the other witnesses.
George Pell is surrounded by police and media as he enters Victoria’s County Court (Image: AAP)
Pell’s theatrical lawyer Robert Richter QC put on a show, doing all he could to discredit the victim’s testimony and the prosecution case.
Mr Richter said the allegations relied on a series of improbable events taking place, making the story so unlikely as to be almost impossible.
“It is possible, ladies and gentleman of the jury, that a meteor will come out of space and strike this court which we’re standing in,” he said.
“It is possible. But do you plan your life on that basis? I don’t think so.”
That first trial ran for five weeks and ended in a hung jury, meaning the whole thing would have to run again.
The judicial process had clearly taken its toll on the six men and six women of the first jury.
The forewoman began crying after saying they could not reach a verdict, and three other jurors wept too.
Chief Judge Peter Kidd told them “not to be hard on yourself”.
AAP returned for every day of the retrial, which ended in a unanimous guilty verdict in December 2018.
You could hear a pin drop when the jury of 12 delivered their verdict. Pell was found guilty of all five charges.
But it would be another three months before AAP and other media outlets could report the news.
Judge Kidd lifted the gag order in late February when prosecutors abandoned a second case against Pell on separate charges, and all the details were revealed.
The pavement outside court is filled with local and international reporters and camera crews (Image: AAP)
Dozens of journalists from across Australia and the world flocked to the County Court for the momentous hearing.
There were frantic scenes outside court as Pell was whisked away to his final night of freedom amid an explosion of media coverage and public commentary.
Members of the public yelled “burn in hell Pell” and “hope you packed your jammies” when Pell walked into court the next day for a pre-sentence hearing, after which he was taken into custody.
Pell was sentenced to up to six years in prison in February 2019. But he lodged an appeal, which failed in Court of Appeal but succeeded in the High Court.
His convictions were quashed in April 2020 and Pell was released from prison. He spent more than 400 days in jail.