Australian Cardinal George Pell jailed six years for abusing boys

Disgraced Australian Cardinal George Pell was sentenced to six years in prison on Wednesday for the sexual abuse of two boys in 1996 in a Melbourne cathedral.

Pell – once the Vatican’s chief financial officer and an adviser to Pope Francis – is the highest-ranking Catholic Church official to be convicted of molesting children.

He faced a maximum sentence of 50 years in jail.

Going through the crimes in graphic detail, Chief Judge Peter Kidd told the Melbourne court Pell’s actions had a “profound impact” on the life of the boy who survived his abuse, and likely had a similar impact on a boy who later died of a heroin overdose.

He accused Pell of “callous indifference” to the suffering of the boys, who have not been named.

In December, the now 77-year-old was found guilty on five charges relating to the sexual assault of two boys at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996. The media was unable to report on the conviction until February because of a suppression order.

Angela Sdrinis, a Melbourne lawyer who has represented victims of abuse for more than two decades, said “the conviction of George Pell shows victims of child sex abuse that no one is above the law”.

The judge started the proceedings by saying Pell was on trial and not the Catholic Church.

Pell is “entitled to the balanced and steady hand of justice”, Kidd told the court, lamenting a “lynch mob mentality” among some of the public.

“You are not to be made a scapegoat,” Kidd said.