- Title: File footage of Vatican Treasurer Cardinal George Pell
- Date: 13th July 2017
- Summary: ROME, ITALY (FILE - MARCH 2, 2016) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** GROUP OF AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH ABUSE VICTIMS WALKING DOWN STREET SECURITY STANDING ON SIDE OF STREET VARIOUS OF GROUP OF VICTIMS GATHERING OUTSIDE HOTEL WHERE PELL'S ROYAL COMMISSION HEARING WAS BEING HELD
- Embargoed: 27th July 2017 11:09
- Keywords: George Pell cardinal Vatican Victoria State Police sexual abuse file
- Location: SYDNEY, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA / VATICAN CITY / ROME, ITALY / IN AIR, ONBOARD PAPAL PLANE
- City: SYDNEY, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA / VATICAN CITY / ROME, ITALY / IN AIR, ONBOARD PAPAL PLANE
- Country: Australia
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime
- Reuters ID: LVA00G6R3IJ47
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Top Vatican official, Cardinal George Pell, is set to appear before an Australian court on Wednesday (July 26), charged with multiple historical sex crimes.
Appointed Vatican economy minister by Pope Francis, Pell is the highest-ranking Church official to face such accusations. He asserted his innocence and said the pontiff had given him leave of absence to return to Australia to defend himself.
Pell, a former archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, had come under pressure from an Australian government commission on institutional child abuse, and had himself been under investigation for at least a year.
On June 29, police in the Australian state of Victoria, where Pell was a country priest in the 1970s, said he faced "multiple charges in respect of historical sexual offences" from multiple complainants. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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