The Richmond Football Club has very quietly removed Cardinal George Pell from the ceremonial club position of Vice Patron following the lifting of court-mandated suppression orders that prevented press from publishing details of his December 2018 conviction on five charges pertaining to child sex abuse.
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On December 11 last year, Pell was found guilty on one count of sexual penetration of a child under the age of 16, and four counts of indecent assault of a child under the age of 16. These convictions stem from incidents involving Pell and two 13-year-old boys.
Despite a two-year trial that lasted well over a year and a lengthy Royal Commission preceding it, the Richmond Football Club stuck by their association with Pell right up until today, when a second criminal trial against the disgraced ex-Archbishop was dropped and the associated suppression order subsequently lifted.
Today, the club issued a short statement confirming Pell had been removed from the ceremonial position, one he’d held since 1997.
Richmond Football Club has today removed Cardinal George Pell as a Club Vice Patron. While acknowledging his right to appeal, the Club has formed a view that his association is no longer tenable or appropriate.
— Richmond FC 🐯 (@Richmond_FC) February 26, 2019
In 2017, when the trial began, club chairman Brendan Gale refused to remove him from the, we stress again, ceremonial position, citing Pell’s “fundamental legal rights.”
We acknowledge the seriousness of these allegations against Cardinal Pell, however, in light of Cardinal Pell’s fundamental legal rights to the presumption of innocence and to a fair trial, he will remain a Vice Patron of the Club, pending the outcome of any trial.
It remains to be seen exactly why Richmond waited until this very moment, three months after the outcome of the initial trial/year-and-a-half since the trial began/five years after the Royal Commission commenced/seventeen years since the initial accusation of child sex abuse was levelled, to take action.
Not the greatest look for the club, by anyone’s estimation.
