(ZENIT News / Melbourne, 18.09.2023).- Cardinal George Pell died, last January of this year in Rome at 81, from cardiac complications resulting from an operation. Months earlier he was exonerated by Australia’s Supreme Court of Justice over abuse allegations, which were never proved.
In August 2022, the Supreme Court of Victoria, highest judicial body in the region, with headquarters in Melbourne, received the lawsuit of a minor’s father for alleged sexual aggressions to his son, who began to take drugs at 14 and died from an overdose in 2014.
The Court rejected the Catholic Church’s appeal to halt the civil lawsuit: “We are convinced that the Law is applied unequivocally to the claims presented by Lisa Flynn, Directress of the “Shine Lawyers” firm, in the name of the alleged victim, according to the Judges’ ruling of the Court of Appeals, in the Victoria region, with headquarters in Melbourne.
The appeal filed by the Church is grounded on the fact that the father of the alleged victim could not proceed with the claim, as he was not the direct victim.
The Supreme Court of Victoria, the highest regional body, determined last August, based on the 2018 Law “Legal Identity of Defendants,” that victims of sexual abuses can sue organizations.
The Court of Appeals’ ruling held that the argument of Victoria’s Supreme Court was “correct” and reminded that the Law doesn’t exclude secondary victims. Justice pursues the Cardinal even after his death.
