George Pell’s last-chance appeal allowed by High Court
Australia’s highest court has granted Cardinal George Pell a final chance to fight his convictions for child sexual abuse offences.
On Wednesday, the High Court gave Pell’s legal team special leave to appeal.
The 78-year-old is currently serving a six-year jail sentence after a unanimous Victorian County Court jury found Pell guilty of molesting two choirboys at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in the 1990s.
In June, the Victorian Court of Appeal rejected his appeal in a two-one decision, prompting Pell’s lawyers to raise the matter to the High Court.
Pell, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic, has so far served eight months’ jail in the Melbourne Assessment Prison.
Pell’s legal team, led by Bret Walker SC, is expected to appear before the judges next year.
Abuse survivors’ advocate Chrissie Foster said the High Court’s decision was “very disappointing”.
“[Victims of abuse] will feel the same, they’ll feel very disappointed that this permission has been granted and that it's going to continue,” Foster told the ABC.