“The only noise aside from furious pen strokes on reporters’ notepads was a woman’s repeated gasps. She ... couldn’t curtail her shock that a man of Pell’s position could be found guilty.”
On a sunny afternoon in December 2018, the ambitious cleric, who started in Ballarat and climbed almost to the top of the Catholic Church, was powerless to prevent 12 everyday Victorians sending him to prison.
For a man of such power and prestige, the verdict was kryptonite. After the jury left the room, Pell struggled to stand in the dock and when the judge left the bench, the prince of the church looked every bit a frail, old man, fearful at what the future held. Kidd had wanted to remand him because a jail term was inevitable, but defence barrister Robert Richter successfully argued for bail as Pell was due to undergo knee surgery.
Pell was a daily visitor at the County Court for months throughout 2018, first in a trial that resulted in a hung jury and no verdict, and the subsequent retrial, where he was found guilty. Every day, a large white car dropped him and one of his solicitors at the corner of Lonsdale and William streets, and a protective security officer escorted them to the building’s entrance.
Tim Fischer, previously Australia’s deputy prime minister and a one-time ambassador to the Holy See, attended to support Pell, and shook hands with him after the verdict. Fischer, at least, waited until the jury left the room before he approached Pell, unlike one witness, who offered his hand to the cardinal after giving his evidence, in full sight of the jury, which angered the judge.When the suppression order was lifted, news of Pell’s guilt brought a tidal wave of fury.
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