Cardinal George Pell’s lawyer, Bret Walker SC, has told three judges presiding over his client’s appeal that the timing of Pell’s offending was a “critical matter” in deciding whether his conviction should be overturned. The introduction of 3 November as another possible date was “in itself disturbing ... and should disturb this court”, Walker told Victorian supreme court chief justice Anne Ferguson, court of appeal president justice Chris Maxwell and justice Mark Weinberg. It was in reviewing this timing that the judges should find a “lack of realistic probability of this offending taking place”, he said. If Walker fails to convince the court that Pell’s conviction should be overturned on grounds of unreasonableness, he will fall back on two other grounds of appeal. The court accepting the appeal on these grounds would most likely result in a retrial rather than his conviction being overturned.

Source: The Guardian June 05, 2019 02:13 UTC