George Pell sentenced to six years in jail for child sexual abuse
Disgraced cardinal George Pell has been sentenced to at least three years and eight months in prison for the "brazen and forceful" sexual abuse of two teenage boys.
Chief Judge Peter Kidd handed down a maximum sentence of six years in Melbourne's County Court this morning and said Pell been "breathtakingly arrogant" in his offending.
Pell was found guilty in December of orally raping a 13-year-old choirboy and molesting another at St Patrick's Cathedral after a 1996 Sunday mass.
Pell held his hands behind his back and did not visibly react as the sentence was delivered.
There were tears from members of the public in the courtroom as Pell signed the sex offender registry and was led away to a waiting prison van.
One of the boys died of a heroin overdose in 2014, while the surviving victim is now in his 30s.
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Judge Kidd was scathing of Pell's offending as he explicitly laid out the facts of the case.
"In my view, the first episode in the priest's sacristy involved a brazen and forceful sexual attack on the two victims," Judge Kidd said.
"The acts were sexually graphic. Both victims were visibly and audibly distressed during this offending.
"There is an added layer of degradation and humiliation that each of your victims must have felt in knowing that their abuse had been witnessed by the other."
The sentence means Pell, at 77 and with health issues, may die in jail.
"I am conscious that the term of imprisonment, which I am about to impose upon you, carries with it a real, as distinct from theoretical, possibility that you may not live to be released from prison," Judge Kidd said.
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https://www.9news.com.au/2019/03/13/08/57/george-pell-sentencing-child-sex-abuse-live-coverage-catholic-church-news-melbourne