George Pell appeal: cardinal's victim not a liar or fantasist, court told

Prosecutor says victim was a ‘compelling witness’ and he wouldn’t have been able to describe the sacristy layout if he was lying

Melissa Davey
Thu 6 Jun 2019 02.38 BST

The complainant who said Cardinal George Pell sexually abused him when he was a 13-year-old choir boy is a compelling witness and neither a liar or a fantasist, a prosecutor told judges hearing Pell’s appeal against his conviction.

On Thursday morning, the second and final day of Pell’s appeal hearing, crown prosecutor Christopher Boyce said there was no way Pell’s victim would have been able to describe the layout of the priest’s sacristy where Pell abused him if he was fantasising or lying.

The offending occurred in 1996 when Pell was the archbishop of Melbourne. After presiding over Sunday solemn mass at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, Pell walked in on two 13-year-old choirboys who had sneaked into the priest’s sacristy and abused them. In March this year, Pell, 77, was sentenced to six years in prison.

“The complainant was a very compelling witness,” Boyce told chief justice Anne Ferguson, court president justice Chris Maxwell and justice Mark Weinberg. “He is clearly not a liar, he was not a fantasist.”

-snip-