A former student of a school in Ballarat has said he never saw Cardinal George Pell do anything “untoward” to students, either at the schools or during their recreation time at a nearby swimming pool.
The man gave evidence at Melbourne magistrates court on Monday at the committal hearing of Pell, which has entered its third week. When the hearing adjourns in about two weeks’ time, the magistrate, Belinda Wallington, will need to decide if there is enough evidence to order Pell to stand trial accused of historical sexual offences.
The man was asked by Pell’s legal team to describe the dormitory at one of the schools, including whether children were supervised while in their sleeping quarters and whether any men were present in the showers.
“I don’t recall any males being there at all,” he said. “It was always nuns that were looking after us.” He said the nuns had kept a close eye on the students.
He was asked whether it was likely he or the nuns would hear it if a child was dragged “kicking and screaming” from the dormitory and into a car outside. “Potentially, yeah,” the man replied.
The man was also asked about trips to the YMCA centre, which included a pool. He said Pell was frequently in the pool, either swimming or playing with students, including launching them into the air from his cupped hands to do backflips or somersaults. Children would also climb on to Pell’s back, the court heard, and Pell would throw them off and into the water.
Asked if there was anything “remotely inappropriate” about those games, the man responded: “For me personally, no.” He was asked to demonstrate to the courtroom the way Pell cupped his hands and launched children into the air.
At the time of the pool visits, 1976 and 1977, Pell served at the Ballarat east parish.
Another witness, a former cinema usher and projector operator, John Bourke, was asked by Pell’s barrister, Robert Richter QC, about screenings of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind in Ballarat in 1978.
Bourke was asked whether he ever noticed Pell attend a screening of the film, and he said he had not, though added he could not always see everyone in the theatre from the projection booth, and that sometimes he was off doing other tasks and not in the screening.
“If a child was heard to scream out on the balcony, an usher would have heard, yes?” Richter put to him.
Bourke responded that yes, an usher would have investigated.
Bourke was asked if he ever noticed blood on the seats of the theatre. He said he had not, though that was something a cleaner more likely would have identified and cleaned.
Pell is the highest-ranking Vatican official to be charged in the Catholic church’s long-running sexual abuse scandal. He has taken leave from the Vatican in Rome to attend court. He has strenuously denied all allegations.
Further description of the charges cannot be given for legal reasons.
The committal hearing continues.
