Melbourne, Australia, Mar 29, 2018 / 22:43 pm
A hearing will that will decide whether Cardinal George Pell will go on trial for alleged abuse came to a conclusion Thursday after Pell's attorney launched a vigorous defense and sought to cast doubt on the path from the first police investigations through the filing of legal charges.
Pell's defense lawyer Robert Richter, 72, engaged in cross-examination of the charges against his client, with Victoria Police Crime Command's head of serious crime, Paul Sheridan, taking the stand in court.
The Victoria Police launched a special operation in 2013 to investigate Pell, "Operation Tethering." Richter charged that at its launch, "it was an operation looking for a crime because no crime had been reported."
Sheridan confirmed the effort had been launched in 2013 specifically to gather information on the cardinal. There was a search for complainants and no one came forward until more than a year after the investigation began.