George Pell admits shame over Catholic church’s handling of child sex abuse

Cardinal George Pell has opened up on the “shame” he feels over the Catholic church’s handling of child sex abuse in his first post-prison interview.

Speaking exclusively to Andrew Bolt just days after walking free from a Victorian maximum-security prison, the 78-year-old said it is a “cancer” that needs to be cut out and admitted he feels “ashamed” that the issue had been treated “inadequately” by the church, as well as condemning those who committed the offences.

“It’s like cutting out a cancer. I think, please God, we’ve got rid of it,” he told Bolt in the interview, which is set to air in full on Tuesday. “I totally condemn these sorts of activities, and the damage that it’s done to people.

“One of the things that grieves me is the suggestion that I’m anti-victim, or not sufficiently sympathetic. I devoted a lot of time and energy to try to save them, to get justice, to get help and to get compensation.”

Pell also told Bolt that he feels no “anger or hostility” towards his accuser.

In December 2018, Pell was convicted of one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16 years and four charges of committing an act of indecency with or in the presence of a child under the age of 16 years.

He was sentenced to six-years in prison, with a non-parole period of three years and eight months. However Pell spent a total of 405 days behind bars before his convictions were quashed by the High Court of Australia on Tuesday, triggering his immediate release from Barwon Prison.

“Today, the High Court granted special leave to appeal against a decision of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria and unanimously allowed the appeal,” the judgement in Pell v The Queen reads.

“The High Court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant’s guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted, and ordered that the convictions be quashed and that verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place.”

Pell also released a statement via his legal team following the ruling, in which he claimed to “hold no ill will” towards his accuser. He said: “I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough.”

Pell’s full interview with Andrew Bolt is set to air on Sky News Australia on Tuesday, April 14.