ABC‘s ‘7.30‘ has revealed that Cardinal George Pell, Australia‘s most senior Catholic cleric, is being investigated by Victorian police after several allegations of sexual abuse were made against him.
The allegations have come as a result of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which was established in 2013 to investigate how large organisations like the Catholic Church were responding to incidents of sexual abuse when it was brought to their attention.
The investigation of the allegations against Pell have been underway for a year, and have been examining claims from alleged victims in Ballarat, Torquay and Melbourne.
The investigation is being undertaken by SANO, the Victoria Police taskforce charged with examining claims that come out of the Royal Commission.
One of the complainants told ‘7.30’ that Pell repeatedly touched him inappropriately while playing with him in a public pool in Ballarat in the summer of 1978-79.
Another man said that in the summer of 1986-87 he saw a naked Pell in a Surf Life Saving Club behaving towards three boys aged between 8 and 10 in a manner that alarmed him caused him to ban him from the club for life.
Pell’s office has issued a statement denying the allegations:
“He emphatically and unequivocally rejects any allegations of sexual abuse against him.”
Photo: Getty Images / Franco Origlia.
Source: ABC.
