Melbourne, Australia, Feb 27, 2019 / 03:46 am
After the revocation of his bail Wednesday, Cardinal George Pell was taken into police custody for the first time while awaiting sentencing on his conviction of five charges of sexual abuse of minors.
The cardinal will be sentenced March 13, and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail for each charge. Pell is appealing the Australian civil court's Dec. 11 conviction.
A gag order preventing media from reporting on the trial and conviction was lifted Feb. 26. The court-imposed gag order was lifted following the decision by local prosecutors to drop further charges related to Pell's time as a priest in the 1970s.
Alessandro Gisotti, interim Holy See press office director, told journalists Feb. 27 that following the guilty verdict of Cardinal Pell, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith "will now handle the case following the procedure within the time established by canonical norm."