Australian Cardinal's victim is credible: Prosecutors

The complainant who accused Australian Cardinal George Pell, once the Vatican's chief financial officer, of sexually abusing him when he was a teenage choir boy is a reliable and credible witness, prosecutors told an appeals court on Thursday.

Pell is bidding to overturn a six-year prison sentence following a conviction last year for child sex abuse offences, reports Efe news.

On Wednesday, the first day of the two-day hearing, Pell's defence lawyers argued that the charges were based on "a catalogue of impossibilities", saying the scenario in which the 77-year-old allegedly committed the abuse was "implausible" and that the accuser's testimony had been inconsistent and reliable.

But Crown Prosecutor Christopher Boyce told Justices Anne Ferguson, Chris Maxwell and Mark Weinberg on Thursday that the "complainant was a very compelling witness. He is clearly not a liar".

Boyce said that the surviving victim's accurate description of the priest's sacristy, where the sexual abuse was committed and which was off-limits to choir boys, proved that he was telling the truth and that he had been in the room.

In a written statement, the prosecution said that the integrity of the guilty verdicts delivered by the jury were "unimpeachable".

"The jury were entitled to accept the complainant as a reliable and credible witness.

"He was skilfully cross-examined for two days by a very experienced member of senior counsel. The complainant's allegations were not improbable when all of the evidence is carefully considered.

"The evidence given by the complainant was not only plausible, it was credible, clear and entirely believable as is reflected in the jury's verdict," the statement added.

Pell was convicted of abusing two boys at the Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral in late 1996 and early 1997.

Until last year, the Cardinal was one of closest advisers of Pope Francis, who has promised a "zero tolerance" approach to paedophilia. The Pope expelled him from his inner circle shortly after the verdict in December 2018.

The cases of abuse against Pell came to light in 2015, when one of the victims filed a report against him with Victoria Police, claiming that he was sexually abused twice by him, soon after he was named the Archbishop of Melbourne.

The victim, who was a 13-year-old choirboy at the time of the offences, said that in December 1996 after he officiated a solemn mass as archbishop of Melbourne, Pell abused him and his friend, leaving them traumatized for years.

The other victim, who never reported the acts, died of a heroin overdose in 2014.

The hearing was due to conclude on Thursday, with the judges' ruling expected at an unknown later date.

--IANS

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