Headlines published on the front pages of the Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun and The Age on December 13, 2018.Dozens of Australian news organisations and journalists face possible "orders for imprisonment" or fines for alleged contempt of court over their coverage of Cardinal George Pell's conviction for child sexual abuse.
Thirty-six news agencies and individuals have been called to a Supreme Court hearing on April 15 to answer accusations they breached a suppression order when publishing material about the trial last year.
George Pell held in solitary, praying and writing
George Pell is spending his jail time in solitary confinement writing and reading extensively and praying ahead of his appeal against sex-crime convictions.
Pell, 77, has continued his lifelong practice of writing as part of his routine to fight off the solitude of 23 hours a day in a cell at the Melbourne Assessment Prison.
But the inevitable and necessary constraints of the prison have prevented the convicted child-sex offender from saying mass inside, with basics such as wine not available to inmates.
George Pell arrives in a prison van amid tight security at the Victorian Supreme Court. Picture: Stuart McEvoyKey events
George Pell is in court trying to overturn multiple sex offence convictions. Pell’s barrister, Bret Walker, SC, argues Pell, 77, was wrongly sentenced to six years’ jail for assaulting two choirboys in 1996 and 1997 in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne. He is serving a minimum three years, eight months. The main ground of appeal is the claim the jury erred when it convicted him. Watch the proceedings here.
The discussion centred on former prime minister John Howard’s decision to write a glowing character reference for Pell after he was found guilty of child sex offences.
“I am aware he has been convicted of those charges, that an appeal against the conviction has been lodged and that he maintains his innocence in respect of these charges. None of these matters alter my opinion of the Cardinal,” Mr Howard wrote.
He went on to describe Pell as “a person of both high intelligence and exemplary character”.
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Former Liberal Minister Amanda Vanstone is right.
What we are seeing is vicious and shameful:
The media frenzy surrounding Cardinal George Pell is the lowest point in civil discourse in my lifetime. I'm 64.
What we are seeing is no better than a lynch mob from the dark ages. Some in the media think they are above the law both overseas and at home.
When the verdict came, the room was still. No one made a sound
For nearly three months a small group of journalists watched as the most powerful Catholic official to be charged with child sexual abuse faced justice in a Melbourne courtroom.
Until now we have been unable to publish a word of what we heard and saw.
Cardinal George Pell, a confidant to the pope and the financial manager of the Vatican, had been on trial for child sexual abuse – not once, but twice.