( Reuters) – Australia’s highest court acquitted previous Vatican treasurer George Pell on Tuesday of sexually assaulting 2 teenaged choirboys in the 1990 s, freeing the 78- year-old cardinal after 404 days in prison.
FILE PHOTO: Cardinal George Pell attends a news conference at the Vatican, June 29,2017 REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File Image
The High Court purchased Pell’s convictions be quashed and decisions of acquittal be gone into in their location, ending the most high profile case of supposed historic sex abuse to rock the Roman Catholic Church.
The 7 judges of the High Court concurred all that the jury in the cardinal’s trial “ought to have actually amused a doubt” about his guilt. Pell, who has kept his innocence throughout the prolonged court procedure, can not be retried on the charges.
” I hold no ill will towards my accuser, I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly injured and bitterness enough,” Pell stated in a declaration quickly prior to he was driven away from the optimal security Barwon Jail near Melbourne.
The decision is available in the middle of Holy Week, the period leading up to Easter, the most essential day in the Christian calendar.
An official Vatican remark was expected later Tuesday.
A couple of hours after Pell’s acquittal, Pope Francis provided his morning Mass for those who experience unfair sentences. Francis