WelCom December 2019
The timeline has been set for Cardinal George Pell’s Australia High Court appeal with dates set for written submissions by Pell’s lawyers to be submitted by early in the new year. Indicative dates published on the High Court’s website shows that the applicant (Pell) has until January 8, 2020, to file a submission.
The Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions, Kerri Judd QC, then has three days short of a month to respond with the respondent’s submission due on February 5. A reply is then scheduled for February 26 leaving March as the earlier court date available. By then, Cardinal Pell would have served more than 12 months of his three year and eight-month minimum jail term.
The High Court has indicated it will hear an appeal against his five sexual abuse convictions, referring his application for special leave to a full bench of the court.
Pell is serving a maximum six-year jail term for the abuse of two choirboys in the 1990s. He has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has taken his case to the High Court after unsuccessfully appealing to the Victorian Court of Appeal.
Source: The Courier