Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal George Pell, has been convicted of sexually abusing two choirboys while he was archbishop of Melbourne.

• The abuse occurred at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996.
• Pell pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer has indicated he will launch an appeal against the conviction.
• Pell was convicted in December but details of the trial can only now be made public after a suppression order was lifted.

Cardinal George Pell did little more than shift his gaze to the carpet, barely registering an expression, as he became the most senior Catholic cleric ever convicted of sexually abusing children.

“Guilty,” the jury foreperson repeated as a woman audibly hyperventilated in the public pews of the courtroom.

It was the end of a five-week trial in the Victorian County Court and more than three days of deliberations by the jury.

And everyone involved in the case, bar the jury, had been here before. The first jury to hear the case had to be discharged, some of them in tears, when they were not able to reach a unanimous decision.

But this time guilty verdicts were returned on all charges — one count of sexual penetration of a child under the age of 16 and four counts of committing an indecent act with, or in the presence of, a child.

Moments earlier, Pell’s legal team had appeared relaxed as they chatted waiting for the court to reconvene.

Now, they sat stony faced at the bar table as the word ‘guilty’ hung in the air.

After the jury filed out, the cardinal’s barrister addressed the judge in uncharacteristically hushed tones, applying to have his client’s bail extended so he could have knee surgery in Sydney.

The judge agreed to grant Pell a short reprieve and instead remand him in custody at his plea hearing.

“This is in no way a sign of the sentence Cardinal Pell will face,” Judge Peter Kidd told the court.

Ahead of his sentencing next week Pell will spend time behind bars, thousands of kilometres and a literal world away from his former home at the Vatican.

 

A court sketch shows George Pell during his trial for sexually abusing two choirboys. Supplied: Fay Plamka

After the judge left the bench, several people moved to commiserate with Pell.

Leaning over the metal railing of the dock, a woman kissed his cheek.

Later, several other people approached to shake his hand.

It was the culmination of a trial which had attracted the attention of high-profile figures like Jesuit priest and human rights lawyer Father Frank Brennan, and former deputy prime minister and ambassador to the Holy See Tim Fischer, who each sat through several days of the case.

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Pell had stepped down from his position as head of the Vatican’s finances in Rome to voluntarily return to Australia, vowing to clear his name.

Catholic churchgoers had been asked to donate to his legal defence, which was run by a formidable barrister known for using confrontational courtroom tactics.

But 18 months after being charged, it was now likely Cardinal Pell would never return from his leave of absence from the Vatican, let alone retain his rank.

It was one man’s evidence that ended the career of Australia’s highest-ranked Catholic, who had climbed so far up the hierarchy of the Catholic Church he had once been considered a possible pope in waiting.

‘You’re in trouble’

Pell was a year into his job as the head of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy when the former choirboy first spoke to Victoria Police in 2015.

He told police he was sexually abused twice by Pell at St Patrick’s Cathedral in East Melbourne soon after the cardinal was installed as archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.

The most serious allegation was that Pell had forced the choirboy to perform a sex act on him after abusing his friend.

Pell’s victim cannot be identified and his evidence was given in a closed court, which means journalists and the public were excluded.

But his testimony can be gleaned from parts of the transcript read by the prosecution and defence during the trial.

The court was told he had been a student at the prestigious St Kevin’s College in Toorak and sang in the St Patrick’s Cathedral choir as part of a music program run by the school.

After singing at a Sunday mass in late December 1996, he and another choirboy slipped away from the rest of the group as they proceeded back to their rehearsal room.

He told the court that they came across the priest’s sacristy, a room at the rear of the cathedral used by priests to dress. It was off limits to the choir.

The former choirboy said they “were being naughty kids having a look around” when they came across a bottle of altar wine and started having a few swigs.

But soon, Pell appeared in the doorway, alone and dressed in his archbishop’s robes.

“He ... said something like ‘what are you doing in here?’ or ‘you’re in trouble’,” his victim told the trial