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The Forum > Article Comments > The High Court reached the correct decision in acquitting Pell > Comments

The High Court reached the correct decision in acquitting Pell : Comments

By Greg Walsh, published 14/4/2020

The use of the term 'technicality' implies that Pell was acquitted on the basis of some obscure legal rule or a 'loophole' in the law that has allowed a guilty person to walk free.

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Cardinal Pell 7, ABC and sundry Leftists churls nil.
Posted by ttbn, Tuesday, 14 April 2020 9:46:50 AM
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The High Court's decision is unsurprising in legal terms, but it leaves completely unresolved the key question, which out of J and Pell is the world's all-time champion fibber? One of them has to be.

But sure, let's do away with juries. I honestly believe the jury did its best, in a situation where home-town witnesses covered for Pell, who wisely refused to front. They knew the "opportunity" was limited, and they had due directions from a judge.

Next time I'm summonsed for jury duty, I'll just say, nah, I'm not going to sign up for a High Court bollocking, let the learned judges sort it among yourselves.
Posted by Steve S, Tuesday, 14 April 2020 10:07:04 AM
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Steve, yes one can argue about whether to have juries, but a majority of three judges in Victoria's Court of Appeal also agreed.

If the jury system was to go, i doubt criminal cases could ever be fairly decided by having just one judge.

BTW, i am not disputing the High Court ruling in the Pell matter.
Posted by Chris Lewis, Tuesday, 14 April 2020 10:32:16 AM
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What made people like Robespierre terrifying was that they were not greedy for power for its own sake: they were genuine idealists convinced that they were right, and that any who opposed them deserved death.
Stephen Tempest

The sentence has changed, but human nature hasn’t. They’re out there.
Posted by don coyote, Tuesday, 14 April 2020 10:50:20 AM
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Why are people blaming the police. 12 jurors who heard the victim's testimony felt it was compelling enough, even after 5 hours of rigorous cross examination by one of the best silks in the business, to form the opinion the Pell was guilty. Two of the three appeal court judges felt the same.

On top of that the 7 members of the High Court in their own words “accepted that the Court of Appeal majority did not err in holding that A's evidence of the first incident did not contain discrepancies, or display inadequacies, of such a character as to require the jury to have entertained a doubt as to guilt."

This isn't a case of false charges being brought rather a believable victim who we all should accept was due his day in court.

This was how the right wing press reacted to the announcement of the Royal Commission.

Paul Kelly: “The dismal, populist and doomed quality of Australian governance has been on display this week with Julia Gillard announcing an in-principle royal commission into child sexual abuse, a panicked Tony Abbott falling into line and an ignorant media offering cheer upon cheer. Rarely has an Australian government embarked on such a sensitive and vast project in profound ignorance of what it was doing, with virtually no serious policy consideration and driven entirely by politics.”

Miranda Devine; “It’s hard to separate the royal commission into child sexual abuse from politics and anti-Catholic agendas, in the fetid atmosphere that currently exists in Canberra.”

Andrew Bolt claimed the Royal Commission was the result of “a great onslaught of hate in the media directed at the Catholic Church – its traditions, its practices and its most effective advocate [Cardinal George Pell] in this country” and that “It is a pity that Tony Abbott seems too worried about being trapped politically as Captain Catholic to defend the church.

It is disturbing to me that a “senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Notre Dame” would be so caught up in the media hype after accusing others the same.
Posted by SteeleRedux, Tuesday, 14 April 2020 11:07:46 AM
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Police will only press charges if they think there is a real case to answer.

in the real world, any sensible government will open Royal Commissions on issues of immense social concern.

the extreme right of Australian society merely represents a tiny proportion of the population that can never win elections, albeit they get a lot of air play in certain media outlets and newspapers.
Posted by Chris Lewis, Tuesday, 14 April 2020 11:29:27 AM
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