• Judge • QC • DPP •
John Howard’s disgraceful comments that Pell’s convictions for raping and molesting children doesn’t change his opinion of Pell at all, are clearly the ramblings of an individual who is struggling for relevance and has lost touch with reality. For Tony Abbott to express similar support, once again confirms that he has lost the capacity, if he ...
So now we get to read what most of Australia, and the rest of the world, has known for months. George Pell has been convicted of five serious criminal offences involving the sexual abuse of young boys. Four counts of committing an indecent act with, or in the presence of a child under 16 and ...
The Catholic church is fast becoming a global pariah. In an extraordinarily self-righteous pronouncement, the church announced that is going to ignore the findings of the Royal Commission and will flaunt the laws in SA requiring the reporting of any admissions of child sexual abuse. Presumably they already adopt the same attitude in relation to those ...
It is a well entrenched principle of sentencing in the criminal law that certain features of a case may be regarded as mitigatory in their effect on punishment. Such features might include a plea of guilty, a demonstration of remorse, forgiveness by the victim or assistance given to the investigating authorities. The absence of these features does ...
Retired Victorian Senior Crown Prosecutor and lecturer at the Australian Catholic University, Geoffrey Horgan QC has recently suggested that it would be hard for George Pell to receive a fair trial if indeed he was to be charged in relation to alleged child abuse. If he is right, we have a serious problem. While Victorian Police were ...