Tag Archives: Cardinal Pell Appeal

The failure of Victoria’s Court of Appeal – Cardinal Pell

In a previous comment, I wondered what motivated Victoria’s Court of Appeal judges, Anne Ferguson and Chris Maxwell, to reject Cardinal Pell’s appeal. I watched the delivery of the verdict. I was stunned to the point of feeling faint. I could not believe what I was hearing from the smug mouth of Ferguson with her superior ‘Karen’ airs. I asked whether it was incompetence, ideology or spinelessness that was the motivation. Damon Johnston’s article below on the appalling record of the Appeal Court under Maxwell suggests incompetence was the problem.

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Victoria’s Court of Appeal savaged in landmark legal study

JULY 23, 2020 The Australian

DAMON JOHNSTON VICTORIAN EDITOR

Victoria’s Court of Appeal has been rocked by a landmark legal study finding that 18 criminal judgments under its president, judge Chris Maxwell, have been overturned by the High Court.

The report, by Victoria’s former chief crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert QC, concluded that during Justice Maxwell’s reign the court had “cast off its near-perfect record”.

“The first 10 years of the Court of Appeal in its criminal jurisdiction saw its judgments affirmed on 10 occasions and reversed twice by the High Court,” Mr Silbert writes in his report, published in the Australian Law Journal.

“The next 14 years (under Justice Maxwell) have seen the Court of Appeal’s judgments reversed 16 times and affirmed on six occasions, with a large number of its decisions criticised, particularly in … sentencing.”

Continue reading The failure of Victoria’s Court of Appeal – Cardinal Pell

Cardinal Pell’s supernumerary torture

I thought all sympathy and compassion for Cardinal Pell had disappeared from the public square . Indeed, It seemed the malice and malevolence of the Pell lynch mob monopolised the space.

So it is a tribute to Professor Mirko Bagaric, director of the Sentencing and Criminal Justice Project at Swinburne University, for publicly showing some compassion for the Cardinal – and for the Australian in publishing his views about the Cardinal’s circumstances. Professor Bagaric has pointed out what many of us have realised. Cardinal Pell is undergoing a supernumerary torture at the hands of the State of Victoria. He writes:

People should be sent to prison as punishment, not for punishment. Research shows that prisoners subjected to long periods of solitary confinement often suffer irreparable long-term mental and physical harm. George Pell is being subjected to modern-day torture by his prison conditions. They are grounds for a strong argument that he should be granted bail pending the outcome of his appeal to the High Court.

Pell has reportedly spent all of the time he has been incarcerated (almost nine months) in solitary confinement at the Melbourne Remand Centre. He is let out of his cell for just an hour a day. That such a high-profile Australian is being subjected to these brutal conditions should be the catalyst we need to start the debate to abolish the use of this form of incarceration for all Australian prisoners…

Studies show supermax confinement — particularly isolation of more than 15 days — has long-term detrimental effects on mental health of prisoners, including insomnia, panic, hallucinations, suicidal impulses, feelings of hopelessness and paranoia. The highest rates of prison suicide and self-harm occur among those in solitary confinement.

When inmates are placed in isolation or supermax units, they are also at risk of physical harm. Lack of exposure to sunlight can cause vitamin D deficiency, making inmates more susceptible to falls and fractures. The near total absence of movement and exercise exacerbates conditions such heart disease, diabetes and arthritis. The physical harm caused by solitary confinement often results in long-term disabilities and additional longer-term healthcare costs. This is especially the case with elderly prisoners. Pell is 78.

Now Pell’s appeal has been referred to the Full Court of the High Court, his prospects of bail are stronger. Appeal bail will be granted only in exceptional circumstances (Marotta v R [1999] HCA) and it is a hard test to satisfy. However, an important relevant factor is whether an acquittal would make the benefit of the acquittal hollow.

It is likely the circumstances of Pell’s confinement have already caused him significant psychological and physical harm. The extent of his suffering is likely to be exacerbated the longer he remains in isolation. That harm is probably irreversible.

The strength of any bail application would be enhanced by the fact there is a reasoned dissenting judgment by Justice Weinberg, and that Pell is not a flight risk.

Supermax and isolation units should be abolished. We can protect prisoners from other prisoners in ways that do not involve barbaric conditions: employ more prison officers. The additional cost would be less damaging than the moral stain stemming from the deliberate infliction of intense, ­unnecessary pain on inmates.

Could the Andrews government just for a moment break from its class’s malevolence towards all things Catholic and do the compassionate and just thing – FREE CARDINAL PELL ON BAIL while he awaits the High Court process.

A further word on the hack

Was it mere coincidence that my website suffered a vicious hack directly after I had made a series of critical and mocking comments on twitter about Cardinal George Pell’s failed appeal?

Those who regularly visit my site know that I fully support the Cardinal in his declaration of innocence and am intensely critical of the leftist individuals, organizations and institutions who have been unrelenting in their goal of destroying the cardinal. The Cardinal Pell Affair is political from top to bottom. He is, and has been, a powerful force in defending political and religious conservatives.

Even though the majority judgment in the Appeal sent the Cardinal back to jail, the dissenting judge’s judgement, for all who retain the basic operations of reason, smashed his colleagues’ woeful efforts, causing many to wonder where their worships’ reasoning faculties had gone.

The irrational majority judgment is a powerful basis from which to continue the fight against the destructive Marxist forces in Australia. Make no mistake, the goal of destroying Cardinal Pell, and thus the Catholic Church, is front and centre in the Australian Marxist agenda.

If the hack was as suspected, then the hackers should know I have not finished by a long shot. Stay tuned for my comments and links to commentaries on the Appeal.