Redress Scheme Finds George Pell to Have Abused Two Boys

Two men have been awarded compensation under the National Redress Scheme after it determined they were abused by the late Cardinal George Pell as children in Ballarat during the 1970s.

One of the men was allegedly raped by Pell in a school gymnasium, while the other was groped during a game at a swimming pool.

The victims, who were eight and nine years old at the time, attended different schools and did not know each other. Pell was a priest and the diocese’s episcopal vicar for education at the time.

National Redress Scheme Awards Compensation Over George Pell Allegations
While criminal cases require proof beyond reasonable doubt, the Redress Scheme operates under the lower threshold of “reasonably likely.”

The diocese of Ballarat disputed both claims.

James, one of the victims, was nine years old and a student at St Francis Xavier Primary School when he says Pell raped him in a school gym after chasing him over a stolen cardigan.

“I remember him saying ‘Pull your pants down’,” James wrote in his complaint. “I thought he was going to whip me with his belt. He didn’t.”

Instead, he recounted that Pell anally raped him. “It was very painful. I was bleeding from my bottom afterward.”

James did not tell his mother, Carmel, for 50 years. “I am just tortured by the fact that for 50 years, he’d lived alone with that horror,” she said.

James was awarded $95,000 in compensation. The decision-maker noted that other victims from his school had also accused Pell of abuse, though their complaints have not been made public.

David, a mathematics teacher using a pseudonym, was in Year 3 at St Patrick’s Primary School when he says Pell grabbed his genitals while throwing him in the air.

He described the manoeuvre as “pretty dodgy in the extreme” and recalled feeling “uncomfortable.”

“It was (and is) preposterous to think that there was anyone that I could go to and ask is it OK for George to place his hand on my genitals,” he wrote.

David received $45,000 in compensation. The decision-maker noted that while his memories were “sketchy” after 50 years, his account was deemed credible.

David’s wife expressed frustration over the Catholic Church’s continued reverence for Pell. “It is very hard to see the church provide so much pomp and ceremony around Pell’s absurd funeral,” she said.

At the time of his death, Pell had been acquitted of charges related to the abuse of two choirboys at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral.

The High Court overturned his conviction, ruling that a jury could not have found him guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

However, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse later found that Pell had been aware of paedophile priests in the Ballarat and Melbourne dioceses but failed to act.

His evidence was described as “implausible,” “inconceivable,” or “not tenable.”

Despite the findings, Pell’s brother David defended him at the funeral, calling the allegations “a woke algorithm of mistruths, half-truths, and outright lies.”

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott also praised Pell, comparing his legal battles to “a modern-day crucifixion.”

The National Redress Scheme is scheduled to conclude in 2027.