Cardinal Pell, the Media Pile-On & Collective Guilt

…It is evident that there is a possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof.

• Chief Justice Susan Kiefel, High Court of Australia quoting from the judgment of all seven judges of the High Court - Chief Justice Susan Kiefel and Justices Virginia Bell, Stephen Gageler, Patrick Keane, Geoffrey Nettle, Michelle Gordon and James Edelman in George Pell v The Queen, 7 April 2020

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The trial, retrial and conviction for historical child sexual assault of Cardinal George Pell, the Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy at the Holy See in Rome, gained international attention. In April 2020, in a remarkable unanimous decision, the High Court of Australia quashed the conviction.

Gerard Henderson BA (Hons) LLB, PhD is executive director of The Sydney Institute - a forum for debate and discussion which enjoys good relations with both sides of Australian politics. He is a columnist for the Weekend Australian and writes the weekly Media Watch Dog blog. Gerard Henderson presented the ABC TV Four Corners program on former Australian Labor prime minister Bob Hawke in August 1994 and was a panellist on the ABC TV Insiders program between 2002 and 2019. His books include Australian Answers, Menzies’ Child: The Liberal Party of Australia and Santamaria: A Most Unusual Man.