Cardinal George Pell
Australian Cardinal George Pell is seen on a screen via video link from Rome as he testifies at Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney, Australia, March 3, 2016. Reuters/via Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse

The Victoria Police sought advice from the Office of Public Prosecutions multiple allegations of child abuse against Australian Cardinal George Pell, the highest-ranked cleric in the country’s Catholic Church. The complaints include the cardinal allegedly touched the genitals of children in the late 1970s while in a Ballarat public pool.

The complainants are from Ballarat, Torquay and Melbourne who submitted eight statements from the alleged victims, witnesses and family members. Taskforce Sano is investigating the allegations, according to ABC’s “7:30” show aired on Wednesday.

Besides the accusation that the cardinal allegedly touched the children's genital while swimming, the complaints also claim he regularly was naked in front of the children in the change rooms and Pell allegedly showed to three young children his private parts in another room. The last incident took place allegedly at the Torquay Surf Club in 1986 or 1987, reports Sydney Morning Herald. The complainants are now in their 40s.

Pell denied the accusations. His office says in a statement the cardinal “emphatically and unequivocally rejects any allegations of sexual abuse against him.” The cardinal is now based in the Vatican where he, in turn, demanded an inquiry into the Victorian Police for conspiring with ABC to destroy his reputation.

“These disclosures and consequent publicity by the ABC clearly are apt and calculated deliberately to influence and compromise relevant judicial and prosecutorial processes,” says Pell’s office.

According to ABC, Victorian Police Commissioner Graham Ashton confirmed that a year-long probe has been going on about multiple allegations of sexual abuse involving the cardinal. It was the Herald Sun that first published the complaints in early 2016, placing the number of alleged victims between five and 10 boys.

According to the Herald Sun report, ex-St Alipus students Lyndon Monument Darren Mooney and Damian Dignan claims Pell played with them in the pool and touched their private parts while under water. “He’d throw is off his shoulder … he would grab you from – have his hands on your backside and then he’d push you off,” says Mooney.

Monument adds Pell allegedly touched their genitals on the outside of their swimwear and slowly placed his hand down the front of their bathers. Dignan recounts, “[He would] grab you … around the testes, around the anus … very forceful around the anus.”

The complainants fear Pell, because of the cardinal’s heart condition, may never return to Australia to face the accusations. Pell was assistant priest in 1971 and moved to a Ballarat East parish in 1973 until 1983. He became auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Melbourne in 1987.

In his testimony to the Royal Commission from Vatican in March, the cardinal admits the church in Australia did a poor job in addressing sex abuse accusations and that it had a predisposition not to believe the victims.

VIDEO: Australian cardinal: Church ‘mucked up’ on sex abuse

Source: Al Jazeera English