Father of ex-choirboy who George Pell was accused of abusing will proceed with Victorian lawsuit

The father of a deceased ex-choirboy who George Pell was accused of sexually abusing while he was archbishop of Melbourne will continue his civil action against the cardinal.

Pell died on Wednesday morning AEDT from heart complications arising from hip replacement surgery in Rome. He was 81.

He was the Vatican’s top finance minister before he left in 2017 to stand trial in Australia for child abuse offences.

In 2018 Pell was convicted of molesting two teenage choirboys in the sacristy at St Patrick’s Cathedral while he was archbishop of Melbourne in 1996. Pell always maintained his innocence and his convictions were quashed in an unanimous decision in the high court in 2020.

He served 13 months in prison before being released.

In July last year the father of one of the choirboys filed a civil case against the Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne and Pell in the Victorian supreme court.

The man, referred to in court as RWQ, is suing for damages for psychological injury, which he claims he suffered after learning of the allegations his son had been sexually abused.

The choirboy, who died in 2014 aged 31 from a drug overdose, never made allegations against Pell.

The case was being defended separately by Pell and the church, which had argued they were not liable to pay compensation to the families of alleged victims of sexual abuse under laws introduced by the Victorian government in 2018 to thwart the so-called Ellis defence.

A judge, however, ruled the father’s claim applied to the archdiocese as well as Pell.

In a statement on Wednesday Shine Lawyers’ chief legal officer, Lisa Flynn, said the civil claim would continue.

“Shine Lawyers is progressing a civil claim on behalf of the father of a former altar boy who alleged he was sexually abused by George Pell,” Flynn said. “The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne is also listed as a defendant in this matter.

“The claim will continue against the church and whatever estate Pell has left behind.A civil trial likely would have provided the opportunity to cross examine Pell, and truly test his defence against these allegations.

“There is still a great deal of evidence for this claim to rely on, and the court will be asked in due course to make its ruling on that evidence.”

Cardinal George Pell dies: divisive legacy of Australia’s most powerful Catholic – video obituary

It is understood both Pell and the surviving choirboy, known as Witness J, were expected to be called to testify as witnesses in the civil case, which would also revisit evidence from the cardinal’s two criminal trials and appeals before the supreme court and high court.

Witness J could not be reached for comment.

But his lawyer, Viv Waller, said Pell would be remembered as the man that presided over the Catholic church in Australia “when the full knowledge of the systemic and widespread nature of child abuse came to the fore”.

“His response to this disclosure of the systemic violation of the human rights of children was inadequate, mean spirited and penny pinching,” Waller said.

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She cited the findings by the royal commission into child sexual abuse that Pell was aware that a pedophile priest, Gerald Ridsdale, was being moved between parishes because he was abusing boys, his lack of empathy for the Foster family, whose two daughters were repeatedly raped by the priest Kevin O’Donnell, and his hand in creating mechanisms the church used to reduce compensation payouts.

As archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, Pell established the Catholic church’s Melbourne Response, which offered capped compensation payments of $50,000 to victims of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy. It was abolished in 2021.

When appointed archbishop of Sydney, the archdiocese used the Ellis defence, named after John Ellis, a former altar boy who had tried to sue the church for abuse he had suffered at the hands of a priest, which asserted there was no Catholic entity that could be sued.

“With the passing of George Pell, we can but be hopeful that there might be an opportunity for transformation of the church and its responses to child sexual abuse,” Waller said.

“Hopefully we’ll see a greater kind of compassion and willingness to accept responsibility not just by saying sorry but also providing financial accountability in the form of planning proper amounts of compensation to survivors and not quibbling about the fine technical legal defences.”

The Victorian government minister Steve Dimopoulos said news of Pell’s death would be difficult for both his family and survivors and victims of child sexual abuse.

“Today would be a very difficult day for the cardinal’s family and loved ones but also a very difficult for survivors and victims of child sexual abuse and their families and my thoughts are with them,” he said.

The Catholic archbishop of Melbourne, Peter Comensoli, described Pell as a “very significant and influential church leader” both in Australia and internationally, who was deeply committed to Christian discipleship.

“At this immediate moment, let our prayers go out to the God of Jesus Christ, whom Cardinal Pell wholeheartedly believed in and followed, that he may be welcomed into eternal life,” he said.

“Our prayers of comfort and condolence are also with his family, especially his only surviving sibling David Pell. May eternal light shine upon him, and may he now rest in peace and rise to glory in the Lord.”

In a later press conference outside St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne, Comensoli defended Pell’s response to child sexual abuse. He described the Melbourne Response as the first scheme of its kind.

“Back in the 1990s, [it] was a significant moment and the taking of steps to address that was important at that time. Now we have different processes and that has been a learning experience over the last couple of decades.”