Cardinal George Pell to find out if child sexual abuse appeal has succeeded

On Wednesday the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child sexual abuse, Cardinal George Pell, will find out if his appeal has succeeded and if he will be released from custody.

The 78-year-old has been in Melbourne assessment prison since being sentenced in March to six years in prison for sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in 1996 when he was the archbishop of Melbourne. He was ordered to serve a non-parole period of three years and eight months.

Related: Cardinal George Pell's conviction: the questions that remain

The jurors heard Pell sexually assaulted the two boys after Sunday solemn mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne in the priest’s sacristy. Pell orally raped one of the boys during this incident and indecently assaulted both of them. Pell offended a second time against one of the boys one month later, when he grabbed the boy’s genitals in a church corridor, once more after Sunday solemn mass. He was convicted on four counts of an indecent act with a child under the age of 16 and one count of sexual penetration with a child under the age of 16.

Pell’s appeal was heard in June before a full bench of the supreme court including the chief justice, Anne Ferguson, the president of the court of appeal, Chris Maxwell, and Mark Weinberg. Only two of the three judges needs to agree as to whether Pell’s conviction should be overturned.

Related: George Pell's appeal: will the verdict stand? – The Reckoning podcast

Pell’s high-profile appeal barrister Bret Walker appealed Pell’s conviction on three grounds, with the first ground – that the jury was unreasonable in reaching its verdict – the most likely to succeed. However, the unreasonable threshold is a high one to meet. The appellate judges have to find that the jurors must have had a reasonable doubt as to Pell’s guilt, not just that they could have. Walker argued there was a “formidable list” of factors and events that needed to line up for the offending to be possible, and that the jury would have had to believe every one of those factors had occurred. If the judges agree, Pell could walk free from the court on Wednesday.

If Walker fails to convince the court that Pell’s conviction should be overturned on grounds of unreasonableness, he will hope to have succeeded on one of the two other grounds of appeal. One being that Pell was not arraigned in the presence of the jury panel – because there were so many potential jurors, they were split between the main court room and an overflow room with a video link established between the court and jurors. The other being that Pell’s defence team should have been allowed to show a video animation of its argument during the closing address, which the judge presiding over the case, chief justice Peter Kidd, deemed inadmissible. Kidd refused to allow the animation as he said the jurors may view it as factual evidence, and new evidence can not be introduced during closing addresses.

(February 25, 1941) 

Pell is born in the Victorian town of Ballarat.

(February 25, 1972) 

Pell returns as a parish priest to Ballarat, where abuse is widespread. 

(February 25, 1973) 

Pell lives with the paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale.

(February 25, 1993) 

Pell supports Ridsdale at a court appearance for child sex offences. Ridsdale is eventually convicted of abusing more than 60 children.

(February 25, 1996) 

Pell is appointed archbishop of Melbourne. He introduces the Melbourne Response, which offers counselling to victims of sexual abuse but caps compensation payments. 

(February 25, 2001) 

Pell is appointed archbishop of Sydney. 

(February 25, 2003) 

Pope John Paul II appoints Pell a cardinal.

(November 1, 2012) 

The Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, announces the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

(January 1, 2014) 

Pell is appointed the prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, effectively the Vatican’s treasurer. 

(March 1, 2014) 

Pell appears before the royal commission for the first time. 

(August 1, 2014) 

Pell appears again in Melbourne, where he likens the church’s responsibility for child abuse to that of a “trucking company” whose driver had sexually assaulted a hitch-hiker.  

(March 26, 2016) 

Pell gives evidence to the royal commission via videolink from Rome. He denies he had any knowledge at the time of Ridsdale's offending. He says once he did find out, it was a “sad story” but “not of much interest” to him.

(October 26, 2016) 

Australian detectives interview Pell in Rome about child sexual abuse allegations. Pell dismisses them as “absolute and disgraceful rubbish”. 

(June 26, 2017) 

Pell is charged with multiple sexual offences.

(May 1, 2018) 

Pell is ordered to stand trial over multiple allegations. The details may not be reported at this time for legal reasons. Pell says he will plead not guilty. The charges are to be split into two trials. The first relates to allegations that Pell sexually abused two choirboys at St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996 and 1997. The second relates to allegations Pell molested boys at the Ballarat swimming pool in the 1970s.

(May 15, 2018) 

Prosecutors request a suppression order, later approved, which bars reporting of the trials.  

(August 19, 2018) 

The jury in the first trial fails to reach a verdict. A mistrial is declared.

(December 11, 2018) 

The jury in the retrial finds Pell guilty on all charges. 

(February 26, 2019) 

Prosecutors drop the swimming pool charges after the judge rules certain evidence is inadmissible. The suppression order on the first trial is lifted.

(March 13, 2019) 

Chief judge calls Pell’s crimes ‘breathtakingly arrogant’ as he sentences Pell to six years in jail, with non-parole period of three years and eight months 

Even if the appellant judges agree that these were errors, they would need to find that the errors were so egregious that they could have affected the jury verdict in order for Pell’s appeal to succeed. If the judges accept the appeal on either of these grounds a retrial would be the most likely result, rather than Pell’s conviction being overturned.

Related: The George Pell story is a long way from ending – even if he wins his appeal | David Marr

However, the court may also find it unjust to order Pell to stand trial again, and a permanent stay of proceedings may be ordered which would halt the case from ever continuing. Pell would be released from custody in this scenario. Whether the conviction holds or is overturned, whichever party loses is likely to appeal the decision to the high court. However, there is no guarantee the high court will hear the case, as certain legal requirements need to be met.

In his sentencing remarks Kidd referred to the complainant only as “J” throughout his sentencing remarks, and to the other victim, who died in 2014, as “R” due to protections over their identities.

“During the incident, J and R were crying and sobbing,” Kidd said.

“In my view, the first episode in the priest’s sacristy involved a brazen and forceful sexual attack on the two victims. The acts were sexually graphic. Both victims were visibly and audibly distressed during this offending.

“Your decision to offend was a reasoned, albeit perverted, one. Certainly you were confident your victims would not complain … the offending which the jury has found you have engaged in was, on any view, breathtakingly arrogant.”

The appeal decision will be live streamed on the supreme court of Victoria’s website from 9.30am on Wednesday.