Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Melissa Davey

George Pell: 'I hope that my appearance here has contributed a bit to healing' – royal commission as it happened

Cardinal George Pell tells the royal commission he regrets his choice of words when he described offending by the paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale as a ‘sad story’ that ‘wasn’t of much interest to me’. Source: AAP

Melissa Davey here closing off our live coverage of Cardinal George Pell’s evidence before Australia’s royal commission into institutional responses into child sexual abuse.

Thanks for following our coverage over the past four days, and thank you to the survivors in Ballarat, Rome and Sydney who have shared their thoughts and their stories with me.

You can catch up on Day One here, Day Two here, and Day Three here. You can also keep the conversation going with me on Twitter or on Facebook.

Meanwhile, a recap of the key evidence from today:

  • Pell gave a brief press conference following the close of his evidence before the royal commission, saying: “I hope that my appearance here has contributed a bit to healing, to improving the situation”.
  • At 9.30pm Australian eastern daylight time, survivors will meet with Pell in Rome. They have largely expressed disappointment at his evidence, saying it at times lacked empathy and transparency.
  • A lawyer for abuse victims has put it to Pell today that the death of at least one child abuse victim could have been prevented had Pell gone to police so an investigation could have been launched. The statement was met by applause from survivors watching from Ballarat town hall.
  • Pell sais when a young schoolboy came to him to say Brother Edward Dowlan was abusing children, he “didn’t do anything about it” aside from tell a chaplain because he believed then that was all he had to do. He was strongly challenged on this point by Justice Peter McClellan.
  • Pell said investigating pedophile priest Peter Searson was not his responsibility and he believed the Catholic Education Office and the Bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, was handling the allegations.
  • Pell said that he regrets what child sexual abuse within the church does to the Catholic faith of the survivors, their families and society.
  • Pell was questioned by his own lawyer, Sam Duggan, who tried to demonstrate that Pell had limited contact with notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale during some of the period in which he was abusing children across several parishes.
  • However, Ridsdale was convicted for abusing more than 50 children over a period of 30 years. For a time, he lived in a parish with Pell.
  • Duggan said it was Pell who handed pedophile priest Peter Searson a letter requesting that he resign in 1998, a move not supported by the Vatican in Rome.
  • However, the commission also heard the Catholic Education Office handed Pell a list of grievances against Searson long before that, in 1989. Pell believed the list, which included reports Searson had abused animals in front of children and was using children’s toilets, did not contain enough information about the situation for him to act.

Updated

The ABC has filed this report on the response of survivors today. The ABC writes:

Sex abuse survivors say they are looking forward to the royal commission handing down its findings in relation to Cardinal George Pell’s testimony, saying they believe he has not been truthful.

Cardinal Pell fronted the child abuse royal commission for a fourth day and final day via videolink from a Rome hotel on Thursday, saying he believed it was a “disastrous coincidence” that a series of pedophile priests had been sent to the Ballarat East parish during the 1970s.

Speaking outside the Hotel Quirinale, survivors said they doubted Cardinal Pell was telling the truth.

“The Ballarat survivors came to Rome to hear truth and honesty from George. We feel we have been deceived and lied to,” survivor Philip Nagle said.

“The royal commission at some stage in the future will give a recommendation on the evidence given by George.”

In several hours – at 9.30pm Australian eastern daylight time and 11.30am Rome time – abuse survivors will meet with Cardinal George Pell.

They hope to also meet with Pope Francis before they leave Rome on Saturday, but no word yet on whether the Vatican has responded to that request. They want a commitment that no child will be abused within the Catholic church ever again, and that everything will be done to prevent abuse in a transparent and rigorous way.

Survivors have said at a press conference in Rome earlier that Pell’s evidence has not left them hopeful that the church is open to transparency, or that it understands the serious and devastating implications abuse has had on their lives.

Updated

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, has brought up the royal commission in parliamentary question time. He says to the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull:

Australians have been shocked and angered by evidence revealed at the royal commission into child sexual abuse. In September last year the royal commission’s final report on redress and litigation recommended a single national redress scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse. Labor committed to a single national redress scheme in October last year. Will the prime minister join with Labor and commit to a single national redress scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse?

Turnbull responded:

The government has carefully considered the royal commission’s recommendations and will lead the development of a national approach to redress for victims of institutional child sexual abuse. We recognise the importance of developing such a national approach to redress as quickly as possible. Survivors want redress, they deserve redress to assist with the healing process. Now we’ve commenced discussions with the states and territories to carefully work through these many complex issues.

Updated

The former premier of NSW Kristina Keneally, who also has a masters in theology, has been closely following Pell’s evidence to the royal commission. She has written some analysis for Guardian Australia, which you can read in full here. Keneally writes Cardinal Pell has thrown his men to the wolves – it’s everyone’s fault but his:

Cardinal George Pell’s evidence this week to the royal commission on institutional responses to child sexual abuse is – to many – shocking. Audible gasps can sometimes be heard from the public gallery in Sydney.

The criticism of Pell emanates along a spectrum from Ray Hadley to David Marr. Even Andrew Bolt was moved to condemnation – though that position didn’t last. Bolt came to his senses, so to speak, and remembered that he was, after all, Andrew Bolt.

Most of the criticism of Pell is sparked by this one stark statement, given in response to questions about what the younger Pell knew about convicted serial paedophile Gerald Ridsdale: “It was a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me ... I had no reason to turn my mind to the evils Ridsdale had perpetrated.”

Let’s set aside that perhaps any priest – indeed, any human with a functioning conscience – might have shown some interest once stories and rumours started to swirl in Ballarat. Pell shared a house with Ridsdale, Pell sat on a committee of priests who made decisions to move Ridsdale from parish to parish, Pell was vicar for education when Ridsdale was a school chaplain at St Alipius, and Pell accompanied Ridsdale to court when he was finally charged.

Pell had more reasons than most to turn his mind to what Ridsdale was perpetrating.

Updated

A recap of one of the most telling exchanges between Justice Peter McClellan and Cardinal George Pell

With Pell’s evidence now over, this exchange is worth going over in full:

McClellan asked Pell about how he responded to a young schoolboy who came to him to say Brother Edward Dowlan was abusing children. In 2015, Dowlan was convicted of 16 counts of indecent assault against 11 boys at four different Christian Brothers’ schools and was sentenced to six years and six months in prison, with a four-year non-parole period.

McClellan: “What did that boy say to you?”

Pell: “Um, he said something like ‘Dowlan is misbehaving with boys’.”

McClellan: “That was a very serious matter to be raised with you, wasn’t it?”

Pell: “Um, yes, that is the case.”

McClellan: “What did you do about it?”

Pell: “Um, I didn’t do anything about it.”

McClellan: “Would you have done something about it?”

Pell: “Well, I eventually did. I eventually inquired with the school chaplain.”

McClellan: “You didn’t go straight to the school and say ‘I’ve got this allegation, what’s going on’?”

Pell: “No, I didn’t.”

McClellan: “Should you have?”

Pell: “Um, with the experience of 40 years later, certainly I would agree that I should have done more.”

McClellan: “Why do you need the experience of 40 years later? Wasn’t it a serious matter then?”

Pell: “Yes, but people had a different attitude then. There was no specifics about the activity, how serious it was and the boy wasn’t asking me to do anything about it but just lamenting and mentioning.”

McClellan: “You and I have had this discussion on more than one occasion: Why was it necessary for people to ask you to do something rather than for you to accept the information and initiate your own response?”

Pell: “Um, obviously that is not the case and my responsibilities as an auxiliary bishop and director of an educational institute and archbishop, obviously I was more aware of those obligations in those situations than I was as a young cleric. But I ... don’t excuse my comparative lack of activity.”

Updated

Cardinal George Pell has addressed the media – says "it's been a hard slog"

I don’t know whether I say good evening or good morning but it’s probably good morning. It’s been a hard slog, at least for me. I’m a bit tired.

But the royal commission process is designed to try to make the situation better for the future, for the survivors and to prevent the repetition of all this suffering in the future.

I hope that my appearance here has contributed a bit to healing, to improving the situation. All the leadership of the church in Australia is committed to avoiding any repetition of the terrible history of the past and to try to make things better. I was born in Ballarat. I’m very, very proud of my Ballarat connections. I grieve for the suffering of the people whom I regard as my own people. I will be meeting with the Ballarat survivors tomorrow. Please God [I hope] that will take us a little bit forward.

A reporter asks: “It was put to you that perhaps this might have appeared to be a witch-hunt and you said it had crossed your mind. Why did you think that?”

With that Pell promptly ended the press conference, replying:

I think I will leave you to work that out. Thank you very much one and all.

Updated

The deputy mayor of Ballarat, Belinda Coates, is with the survivors in Rome. She had this to say:

I would like to congratulate our incredibly brave survivors, and I really deeply, deeply hope that it encourages and empowers other survivors across Australia to speak out and gives them courage.

I would like to thank the support team for supporting the survivors here. I would like to thank the people of Ballarat, the messages of hope and positivity and support for the survivors here and other survivors have just been pouring in, it has been absolutely overwhelming. Also I thank the people across Australia who have sent in messages of support and all power to these survivors here for putting the spotlight on this issue of child sexual abuse, child sexual rape.

It is a serious issue and these people here have just really brought the spotlight of the world onto this, and so I thank them for that.

Ingrid Irwin, representing survivors Stephen Woods and Andrew Collins, said:

For those who come forward that may not have their religion or their church or their family’s support once they come forward, you can make a new family, and reach out, get the help you need and don’t wait, and reclaim your life and there is a lot of help out there.

If you need support you can call 1800 Respect on 1800 737 732, Adults Surviving Child Abuse on 1300 657 380 or Lifeline on 13 11 14. A full list of support services and websites can be found here.

"I hope we’ve shown everyone that when you face the truth with dignity, you really can achieve so much," abuse survivor David Ridsdale says.

David Ridsdale, who is the nephew and victim of notorious paedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale, says he wonders why Pell didn’t assist him when he rang him for help. He told reporters:

I hope we’ve shown everyone that when you face the truth with dignity, you really can achieve so much. We have worked so hard to do that, and I think what we have been through over the years, all of us, to have pulled together to pull this off is a testament – don’t ever underestimate broken people.

Just because you see people in the street and you think there is something wrong with them, stop the judging, you know, pick them up, like we picked each other up, because that is how humanity will go forward, not this hiding, not this power struggle, not this power imbalance, because that is why we refused the first meeting [with Cardinal George Pell] and that is now why we are now going, because we are meeting on a level playing field.

The meeting with Pell will be held tomorrow morning at 11.30am Rome time. Given it’s 3.3oam Rome time now, that’s only a few hours away for the exhausted survivors. Ridsdale says of the meeting:

There are a few things we will say, but we as a group have made a commitment to ourselves to be diplomatic and dignified.

Updated

Abuse survivor Paul Levey has broken down addressing the media in Rome. It took a lot for him to get there, as he suffers from a medical condition which makes it difficult for him to fly. He required a 24-hour stopover. He implores people to tie a ribbon to their fence to show support for child sexual abuse victims around the world, as part of a movement called Loud Fence.

My name is Paul Levey and I would like to thank all the survivors who have made this journey to Rome to hear Cardinal Pell testify.

We are like many cogs that make a clock turn. In strength of mind, we are like brothers. I would like to thank the people who came with us to make sure we stayed safe and well. I would also like to say a special thank you to my partner Michelle who has been on this journey with me for 20 years.

Last of all, I would like to thank everybody at home who has shown us that we have the support of Australia and the world behind us, and I would like to thank the people of Rome for making us welcome in their beautiful country, and last of all, everybody I would like you to tie some ribbons on your house, on your gates, on your fence for Loud Fence.

The survivors made it to Rome after lawyers for Pell said he was too unwell to fly to Australia to give evidence. It prompted a large fundraising campaign to raise money to send survivors and a support network of counsellors to Rome. You can read about that campaign, which raised more than $200,000, here.

Updated

Ballarat sexual abuse survivor Tony Wardley addresses media in Rome.

Tony Wardley says:

First of all I want to thank my wife and family who have stuck by me. Secondly, I want to thank the people of Ballarat, Australia and the world who donated money so we have a voice. It is the responsibility of all humanity to protect children, not to stand by and pass the buck.

I hope this doesn’t seem like a Catholic-bashing exercise, but religions – all religions who worship their God or gods – must realise the messengers are only messengers, they are not above everyone else. I would like to thank the media for amplifying our voices.

Updated

To recap the final hour of evidence:

  • Pell was questioned by his own lawyer, Sam Duggan
  • Duggan tried to demonstrate that Pell had limited contact with notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale during some of the period in which he was abusing children across several parishes.
  • However, Ridsdale was convicted for abusing more than 50 children over a period of 30 years.
  • Duggan also points out it was Pell who handed paedophile priest Peter Searson a letter requesting that he resign in 1998, a move not supported by the Vatican in Rome.
  • However, the commission also heard the Catholic Education Office handed Pell a list of grievances against Searson long before that, in 1989. Pell believed the list, which included reports Searson had abused animals in front of children and was using children’s toilets, did not contain enough information about the situation for him to act.
  • Pell said that he regrets what child sexual abuse within the church does to the Catholic faith of the survivors, their families and society.

Updated

The evidence concludes

Pell’s lawyer points out that it was Pell who handed paedophile priest Peter Searson a letter telling him to resign.

Duggan: “What was his response to you telling him that, or handing him a letter requesting his resignation?”

Pell: “... he wasn’t at all pleased.”

Duggan: “And your response was, ‘Retire and resign’.”

The questioning of Pell has now finished and Pell has been told he will not be required further.

Melissa Davey with you here. Stay with us for a recap to the day’s events and reaction from survivors.

Updated

A long week for all involved.

Pell’s lawyer, Duggan, is now challenging comments made by counsel assisting, Gail Furness, yesterday that it was “implausible” that Pell was not properly briefed by the Catholic Education Office about the abuse occurring at the hands of paedophile priest Peter Searson. Duggan is also addressing suggestions from commission chair, Peter McClellan, that Pell could have done more to address abuse allegations and respond to them while he was auxiliary bishop.

Pell tells Duggan: “I wasn’t asked to help. I’m not sure that my requesting would have helped or hindered a change of mind by the archbishop. He’s quite accurate in saying the auxiliary bishops are outside the executive chain. Could I just say one sincere word for Father [Thomas] Doyle? I think he was very competent, innocent director – a competent director of education. We now know he stated explicitly he wanted Searson removed. When the archbishop refused to do that, it put Father Doyle in an appallingly difficult situation. I just ask that that be noted.”

The commission previously heard that Doyle found it so stressful and upsetting that no one was responding to his complaints that Searson was abusing children that he resigned. He was unable to get a Catholic teaching job after that.

In November Doyle told the commission that when he was director of the Catholic Education Office for much of the time Searson was a parish priest, and he believed the complaints about Searson were serious. However, he did not go to police.

Searson died in 2009 having never faced charges. The commission heard the complaints against him spanned two decades, from 1977, and across the three parishes where he worked as a priest.

Updated

Pell’s lawyer is painting a picture of how very busy Pell was during the time paedophile priests were abusing children throughout parishes within the Ballarat diocese. Excerpts from Pell’s diary are being tendered as evidence.

Pell describes his day on 14 September, 1983: “I was a member of the council of the Ballarat college of advanced education so the diary indicates that I lectured for a couple of hours, travelled down to Melbourne for a 2:30 meeting and came back for the evening meeting of the Council of the Ballarat College of Advanced Education”.

Updated

Documents are being tendered by Pell’s lawyer, Duggan, showing that he was on study leave from May to August 1979. Pell tells the commission he was “very busy” during part of the period when child abusers were operating within the diocese of Ballarat.

Duggan: “It appears in this letter that a request has been made to you to become editor of a publication called ‘Light’. Is that right?”

Pell: “That is correct.”

Duggan: “You appear to express some reluctance to take on that role. Why was that?”

Pell: “Because, as I said, I got no particular enthusiasm for extra work and do not feel underemployed. In fact, I was already very, very busy.”

Updated

Kristina Keneally has defended her credentials to comment on Pell’s evidence on Twitter.

Cardinal Pell's lawyer Sam Duggan is now asking him questions

Pell’s lawyer, Sam Duggan, asks Pell: “In late 1975 or any time after whilst you were in Ballarat, did the police ever tell you that they thought Gerald Ridsdale had sexually assaulted a child but they weren’t going to charge him?”

Pell: “No, never.”

Duggan: “Did the police ever warn you that Gerald Ridsdale might be a risk of abusing a child?”

Pell: “No.”

The commission has resumed with Pell apologising to abuse survivor Julie Stewart.

If I inadvertently added to the distress of Ms Stewart, I absolutely apologise.

Updated

It has been an unbelievably long few days for the survivors, particularly those who are in Rome. The evidence has been going past 3am Rome time each day.

A recap of the last couple of hours

  • A lawyer for abuse victims has put it to Pell that the death of at least one child abuse victim could have been prevented had Pell gone to police so an investigation could have been launched. The statement was met by applause from survivors watching from Ballarat town hall.
  • Pell said investigating pedophile priest Peter Searson was not his responsibility and he believed the Catholic Education Office and the Bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, was handling the allegations.
  • Pell said that he regrets what child sexual abuse within the church does to the Catholic faith of the survivors, their families and society.
  • Lawyers have been forced to keep their cross-examinations of Pell to 20 minutes or less as the commission races to get through the fourth and final day. The commission is due to wrap up at about 1pm Australia eastern daylight time.
  • The commission is taking a short break and will resume shortly.

If you find any of the evidence or coverage of the commission distressing, you can call 1800 Respect on 1800 737 732, Adults Surviving Child Abuse on 1300 657 380 or Lifeline on 13 11 14. A full list of support services and websites can be found here.

Updated

The commission is taking a short adjournment. Lawyers representing child sexual abuse survivors have spent the morning grilling Pell about what he knew of their stories as well as those who abused them.

Updated

Pell says that he regrets what child sexual abuse within the church does to the faith of the survivors, their families and society

Julie Stewart, now 40, previously gave evidence before the commission that she was sexually abused by the parish priest at the Holy Family church in Doveton, Victoria, Peter Searson, from when she was in year three.

Stewart told the commission Searson would force her to sit on his lap during confession, rather than on the other side of the confessional barrier, and would ask her to kiss him and tell him that she loved him. When she went to confession in year four with the rest of her school class, Searson placed her on his lap “so I could feel his erection on my backside”, Stewart told the commission in November.

Her lawyer, Cassie Serpell, says to Pell: “Julie Stewart’s never stepped inside a confessional since that time. That wouldn’t surprise you, would it?”

Pell: “No, I deeply regret that and of course one of the other things I regret as a priest is the damage that these crimes do to the faith of the survivors, of the victims and their friends and family and generally throughout the society. I lament that.”

Updated

A barrister for three abuse victims including Julie Stewart, Cassie Serpell, tells Pell “victims of child sexual abuse by clergy in the Catholic church have suffered harm, including long-term psychological harm”.

Pell replies: “Not all of them did but many did. I have read many of their stories. They’re harrowing stories and I feel deeply for them. Many of them are lifelong sufferers.”

Updated

Pell says investigating Searson was not his responsibility

O’Dwyer: “Cardinal, can I put this to you: At this time, that is by August or later, whenever the meeting was, at this time in 1991, you were in the loop as far as knowledge of Father Searson being a risk to children in terms of abusing them. You were in the loop.”

Pell: “Yes. And the whole point at issue of course is the level of that risk and just what could be done within the church and state law to deal with that.”

O’Dwyer: “At a minimum, what I suggest to you is that knowledge would have required you to firstly investigate those matters that are outlined, investigate them.”

Pell: “No, that’s not the case because the responsibility is with the normal executive agents. If they’d asked my opinion I would have given it.”

Justice McClellan interjects here: “Now do you not think, irrespective of who might have had the formal authority, that it fell upon you to do everything you could to ensure that these problems were investigated by someone and, if found to be true, proper action was taken?”

Pell: “Yes. I believe that’s the case. I believe that there was an investigation by the Catholic Education Office, there was an investigation by Minter Ellison and I was satisfied that the matter was in hand.”

Updated

Paul O’Dwyer SC, representing two child sexual abuse victims, is asking Pell about the paedophile priest Peter Searson. Complaints had been made about Searson from his time as a parish priest at Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Sunbury in 1977, to the decade when he was a parish priest at Holy Family parish in Doveton, the commission has previously heard.

O’Dwyer: “We now know clearly, from reading all the documents, that there had been a longstanding concern at that school that Father Searson was a risk to those children, at risk of sexual abusing those children. We know that, don’t we?”

Pell: “We now know that. At that stage, I knew primarily what the staff came to tell me and what they did tell me.”

O’Dwyer: “You see, when the staff presented their grievances, I suggest to you that it was obvious that they were concerned about those three matters that I’ve just pointed to you in relation to the children.”

Staff told Pell Searson had shown children a dead body in a coffin, had tortured animals in front of them, and was using the children’s toilets, the commission heard. Pell said he did not think those grievances warranted removing Searson or going to police.

Pell: “They were concerned about the whole list of grievances they presented to me, all categories.”

O’Dwyer: “Of course but in explaining their grievances, I suggest to you that given the history of this school it beggars belief that they would not have told you of their concerns they had about Father Searson and the safety of children.”

Pell: “They were expressed to some degree but that has to be set in the context where they were not asking for him to be removed.”

The allegations of Searson’s abusing meant he had to “unpack what they meant in actual fact because, as always with allegations, they have to be tested”, Pell says.

“I remember very explicitly that they said they were not asking for his removal and, obviously, that is incompatible with their saying to me that he was a serious risk for paedophilia. Or was engaged in that activity.”

Updated

Shine Lawyers national legal partner, Lisa Flynn, has provided this analysis:

Following this morning’s revelations and Cardinal Pell’s testimony thus far, I believe that there is now little doubt he was derelict in his duty. If he did know of abuse within the midst of the Church and failed to take heed and act then both himself and the Church’s conduct is tantamount to negligence whereby the victims must be compensated for their suffering.

Some of Pell’s testimony also lends itself to questioning whether the Church has deliberately concealed certain knowledge that it possessed but failed to divulge at the time of past criminal and civil proceedings against the Christian Brothers and the Church. If that is so, then this could be considered to be conduct akin to fraudulent concealment.

For far too long now, the church has shirked it’s responsibility by hiding behind defences such as the statute of limitations. Now, with the limitation impediment removed in the state of Victoria and on the basis of Pell and other clergy members being aware of abuse at the time of its occurrence, the way is paved for fair and proper reparation to be made to the victims.

Shine represents survivors of child sexual abuse.

Updated

Victim could be alive today had he not been abused, commission hears

Pell agrees that at least one child sexual abuse victim may still be alive had he not been sexually abused and a proper investigation into his abuse carried out. But he says Bishop Mulkearns, not he, should have acted.

Lawyer: “Helen Watson’s son, Peter, who died in 1999, could have still been alive if a proper investigation had have been done. That’s the case, isn’t it, Cardinal? Peter Watson could have been alive?”

Pell: “Yes, a proper investigation would have helped impede that and of course you need to have at least prima facie evidence to call an inquiry.

Lawyer: “And my client, BPD, who lives with the guilt and shame of Peter Watson’s death, given the knowledge he had of [pedophile] Paul David Ryan, and the fact he’d reported to the bishop, he does not bear the blame, the victims don’t bear the blame for this failure to report, the responsibility lay with the archbishops and the bishops, didn’t it, Cardinal?”

Pell: “The responsibility lay with the person who did not act when he should have and that would certainly seem to have been Bishop [Ronald] Mulkearns for sure.”

Updated

The lawyers are pressed for time, with the commission due to finish at 1pm. Many have had their requested time for questioning cut back, and are being kept to a strict schedule.

Sky News’ Simon Love is back at the Ballarat town hall for the final day of Pell’s evidence. He was joined by a small group of survivors for the early start.

As Love has reported over the past four days, it was another lively crowd.

Sarah Farnsworth of the ABC is also in Ballarat and tweeted about this emotional scene at the town hall earlier this morning.

Updated

Shaw: “I suggest very directly you are lying about this to protect your own reputation. What do you say about that?”

Pell: “I’d say that is completely untrue and unjustified by any evidence. It is a baseless allegation.”

Shaw: “Can I suggest ... the church cared more about itself as an institution than it did about little children and adolescents entrusted to its care, that’s right, isn’t it?”

Pell: “The church too often did not care adequately for the survivors and children.”

Updated

A lawyer representing victims, Jim Shaw, puts it to Pell: “To paraphrase the old saying, your memory works in mysterious ways, Cardinal?”

Pell: “No more mysterious than many other people and in fact my memory of events 30 or 40 years ago might be marginally better than the memories of some.”

Shaw: “I suggest it’s implausible that the only thing you would remember nothing of these meetings except for one thing and a thing that didn’t happen. That is, the fact that paedophilia was not mentioned? That is implausible, Cardinal?”

Pell: “Well,the way you put it, it certainly is. I never suggested I remembered nothing of the meetings. Paedophilia is abhorrent and if it was mentioned, I would have remembered it.”

The meeting being referred to is a meeting of consultors in 1982 where Pell was present. At the meeting it was decided to move notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale for a sixth time between parishes. While the majority of people at that meeting knew Ridsdale was abusing children, Pell maintains he did not know and he also did not know the true reason for Ridsdale being moved. On Wednesday counsel assisting, Gail Furness, told Pell it was implausible that the bishop and his other consultors knew while Pell did not.

Updated

The royal commission has resumed.

Updated

Fairfax cartoonist Cathy Wilcox with her take on the proceedings:

Updated

A recap of this morning's evidence

  • Cardinal George Pell says a school boy came to him about the abuses inflicted by Father Dowlan, but said “the boy wasn’t asking me to do anything” about it. For this reason, Pell said all he did to help the boy was make an inquiry with the school chaplain.
  • A lawyer for abuse survivor David Ridsdale has put it to Pell that he tried to discourage him from going to police about the abuse. He also says Pell tried to bribe Ridsdale to prevent him from speaking out. Pell denied the allegations.
  • Pell told the commission he had arranged for Pope Francis to receive a summary of each day of the commission but he had “not really” spoken to him about his evidence.
  • The number of paedophiles in Ballarat was a ‘disastrous coincidence’, Pell said.
  • Survivors in Rome has responded angrily to Pell’s evidence, describing his evidence as dishonest.

Updated

Abuse survivor, David Ridsdale, speaks to the press in Rome

David Ridsdale’s lawyer cross-examined Pell this morning. He tells the media:

You’re our voice. Seriously, you are our voice. Without the media survivors just wouldn’t get anywhere. So anyway, it’s difficult for us ... it’s difficult for us not to give in to the strong emotional responses that the lack of empathy evokes in survivors. We maintain our dignity.

Another survivor, Philip Nagle, adds:

The Ballarat survivors came to Rome to hear truth and honesty from George. We feel we have been deceived and lied to. The royal commission at some stage in the future will give a recommendation on the evidence given by George. We feel George has not been honest not truthful. George will have to live with this chosen course.

They said they did not want to weigh into whether Pell should resign, saying that was a matter for the Vatican, the police and the royal commission.

Updated

Pell must stand down – Manny Waks

In 1988, when he was 11 years old, Manny Waks was abused by a member of the Orthodox Jewish Yeshivah centre known only to the commission as AVP. The man abused Waks multiple times. When he was 12 another Yeshivah staff member, security guard David Cyprys, began sexually abusing him.

At a press conference in Rome, Waks said he had just arrived in Italy because he felt compelled to support the Catholic survivors. Waks gave evidence to the commission during its hearings last year into the Yeshivah centres. Waks told reporters a couple of minutes ago:

I’m here on behalf of the Jewish community. I’ve been watching the ongoing developments over the last few days and nights from Israel. I felt compelled to come over here personally, I’ve just gotten off the flight an hour ago and to stand in support of these courageous survivors and their families.

As we know, this issue crosses borders. It’s not unique to any religion and we need to address it robustly and there are no excuses and there is – this is the time for no more silence. As a member of the Jewish community, as a leader of the Jewish community, there are hundreds if not thousands of Jews around the world who have contacted me and asked me to personally convey this message publicly and to the survivors and the families themselves.

From my perspective personally I would say that Cardinal Pell must resign from his position. If he was aware of some of those issues that went on back then, clearly he’s culpable. If he didn’t know of what was going on, then he’s incompetent. If he’s not going to do that for the victims and the survivors, then he should do that for itself.

You can read my interview with Waks from last year here.

Updated

'Coincidence, my foot. They clearly colluded' – survivor

Stephen Woods – who was abused by the notorious paedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale and the convicted paedophile brother Robert Charles Best while a student at St Alipius primary school has given a press conference outside the Hotel Quirinale in Rome.

As with all survivors, we are really hopeful that more would have come out as far as the cover-ups of the ongoing, I suppose instability is the feeling I’m feeling in the Catholic church, that they seem to not really be sure about how to deal with so much criminality.

Because there’s been no independent investigations, been no worrying about what has gone on over the last century in Australia. As we heard just before that Cardinal Pell said that when asked why there were so many paedophiles in Ballarat, he said it was just a tragic coincidence. Coincidence, my foot.

They clearly colluded and so it raises this very serious question about what is wrong with the thinking amongst the leaders in the church that they don’t want to know what has gone so seriously and tragically wrong that we have to come to the other side of the world to get answers.

We are wishing the pope intervenes here. The pope is willing to meet with us and just hear our concerns, hear the pain of so many thousands of victims in Australia and that this is shedding such bad light on the church and shedding such bad light on everybody who says that the Catholics are good.

Updated

Ballarat was 'was one of the very worst places in Australia', Pell says

Lawyer Jim Shaw says to Pell: “As we’ve found, Ballarat was, if you like, the very epicentre of clergy sexual abuse in the 70s, wasn’t it? That’s what we now know.”

Pell agrees. “We now know it was one of the very worst places in Australia,” he says.

Shaw: “You said also on the second day of your evidence on Tuesday, and we’ve heard this quote many times before, you are probably sick of hearing it: ‘[paedophile priest Gerald] Ridsdale was a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me.’ Do you remember that?”

Pell: “I said nothing of the kind as I have endeavoured to explain this evening.”

Shaw: “I’m quoting you from the transcript, Cardinal.”

Pell: “I would like you to do so.”

Shaw: “I just did. ‘A sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me.’”

Pell: “That’s a selective quotation. I’ve explained that the use of the word ‘interested’ was a mistake and misleading and I tried to explain just what I was starting to say in a confused and inadequate way.”

And with that we’re taking a 40-minute break. Pell requested the 40 minutes, saying he wanted to return “as clear-headed as possible”.

Melissa Davey with you here, you in can share your thoughts with me on Twitter or on Facebook.

Survivors are due to make some statements outside the Hotel Quirinale in Rome shortly.

Updated

Pope Francis receives a daily summary of Pell's evidence

Pell tells lawyer Jim Shaw that he saw Pope Francis on Monday but that he did not discuss the commission hearings with him.

Shaw: “Did you discuss your evidence with him?”

Pell: “I arranged for him to have a summary of each day’s activities provided to him and to the secretary of state.”

Shaw: “Did you discuss your evidence with him?”

Pell: “No, not really, not at all.”

Updated

In 1991 the archdiocese of Ballarat heard from a mother who complained that Paul David Ryan tried to have a bath with her youngest son when he was 12 or 13.

Giving evidence to the royal commission last year, Australian army chaplain Monsignor Glynn Murphy, who was the bishop’s secretary at Ballarat between 1990 and 1997, gave evidence that the bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, subsequently told him that Ryan was to be sent to another parish, in Ararat.

After a few months at Ararat, Ryan was sent to the US for treatment for his abusing. Under questioning from a lawyer, Pell says that although he was aware that Ryan was being sent to the US, he did not know that was to receive treatment for his behaviour towards young boys.

“I would have accepted at face value the statement of the bishop to the clergy that he was in the States for study purposes,” Pell says.

But Pell does say that he regarded Ryan “at least a potential problem”.

He says: “I wasn’t aware that there was a peadophilia problem and I thought he was there basically to study.”

Updated

'The boy wasn’t asking me to do anything about it' – Pell

Pell says when a schoolboy complained to him about paedophile Brother Dowlan, “He just mentioned it casually in conversation, he never asked me to do anything.”

Lawyer: “You didn’t go straight to the school and say, ‘I’ve got this allegation, what’s going on?’”

Pell: “No, I didn’t. People had a different attitude then. There was no specifics about the activity, how serious it was and the boy wasn’t asking me to do anything about it but just lamenting and mentioning it.”

Justice McClellan interjects here. He says: “You and I have had this discussion on more than one occasion. Why was it necessary for people to ask you to do something rather than for you to accept the information and initiate your own response?”

Pell: “Obviously that is not the case and my responsibilities as an auxiliary bishop and director of an educational institution, an archbishop, I was more aware of those obligations in those situations than I was as a young cleric … But I don’t ... excuse my comparative lack of activity, the fact that I only went to the school chaplain and inquired what was the truth of these rumours.”

Updated

BWF’s lawyer tells Pell that BWF’s ex-wife also remembers her ex-husband telling her he went to Pell and told him about Dowlan’s abusing.

The lawyer points out BWF and his ex do not have a good relationship and she had no reason to help him, yet supported his evidence that he told Pell of the abuse.

BWF “might have had a fantasy” that the conversation with him happened, Pell suggests.

A lawyer representing a witness, identified only as BWF, tells Pell BWF’s “younger brother was beaten so seriously and so alarmingly and the injuries so apparent that his mother complained to the headmaster, Brother Nangle, about his treatment. Do you understand that to be the evidence?”

Pell: “I do. I do, very sad.”

Lawyer: “The evidence also from BWF is that at 14 years of age he came to learn of the bashing and such was the knowledge of Brother Dowlan’s abuse of children and sexual abuse and molestation of children within the school population, the student population in particular, that he came to understand correctly, as it turned out, that his younger brother had been beaten and sexually abused, do you understand that to be his evidence?”

Pell: “I do.”

Lawyer: “Now he’s said to this royal commission ... ‘I was very upset about what happened so that same week during some free time, I went to the presbytery to seek out Father Pell, who was a well-known influential priest in the area. I was so nervous I just blurted out to Pell that Dowlan had beaten and molested BWG [his brother], and demanded to know what he, Pell, was going to do about it. Pell became angry, yelled at me, ‘Young man, how dare you knock at this door and make demands.’ We argued for a bit and told me to go away and shut the door on me.’”

After some questioning Pell says: “Even if language that I was alleged to have used is ridiculous. The suggestion that I would speak like that to a young person in distress is absolutely false.”

“It might have happened with some other individual, but it certainly didn’t happen with me.”

In 2015, Edward Dowlan was convicted of 16 counts of indecent assault against 11 boys at four Christian Brothers schools and was sentenced to six years and six months in prison, with a four-year non-parole period.

Updated

Michael Fitzgerald, the lawyer for abuse survivor Paul Levey, is now asking Pell questions. Like survivor David Ridsdale, Levey is present in the room with Pell in Rome.

Levey was sexually abused by Father Gerald Ridsdale in Melbourne and Mortlake multiple times, and despite this abuse, was forced to live with Ridsdale when he was just 14 years old, subjecting him to further horrific and ongoing abuse.

Levey made the trip to Rome despite suffering severe medical ailments that meant he required a 24-hour stopover for medications on his way.

Pell tells Fitzgerald he was asked to appear in court with Gerald Ridsdale to perhaps lessen his jail time.

“I had some status as an auxiliary bishop and I was asked to appear with the ambition that this would lessen the term or punishment, perhaps, lessen his time in jail.”

Updated

Lawyer: “Now, it’s been publicly suggested in Australia that you are the target of a witch-hunt. You could not possibly share that view, could you?”

Pell: “I have never expressed such a view but I must confess the idea has occurred to me.”

Lawyer: “Do you feel victimised by the process, Cardinal?”

Pell: “By the process itself, no, but I am very keen to clearly demonstrate that when false claims are made against me that I explain the grounds why they are false as I’ve done in this case.”

Updated

The number of paedophiles in Ballarat was a 'disastrous coincidence', Pell says

A lawyer representing a child sex abuse victim identified only as BWE, as well as other survivors, asks Pell the reasons behind so many child sexual abusers aggregating in Ballarat East diocese in the 1970s.

Pell: “I think it was a ... disastrous coincidence.”

Lawyer: “At the time, there were approximately four or five persons with very similar predilections, specifically a sexual attraction to boys of a similar age in the same suburb. You believe that’s a coincidence?”

Pell: “Yes, I do.”

Lawyer: “So you have turned your mind to this issue and your conclusion is that it’s an unfortunate coincidence?”

Pell: “Yes, well, I couldn’t imagine the placements that were done there were made there by the leadership of the Christian Brothers and I think their leadership in this area was pretty disastrous but I wouldn’t for a minute think that they put all these people together for some specific purpose.”

Updated

The lawyer representing abuse survivor David Ridsdale, Stephen Odgers, concludes his cross-examination of Pell by saying David once told Pell: “F you, George, and everything you stand for.”

Odgers: “I suggest that it was you, not him, who raised the possibility of financial assistance, that you asked him, ‘What would it take for you to keep quiet?’ And that he responded angrily to your suggestions saying, ‘F you, George, and everything you stand for.’ What do you say to that, Cardinal?”

Pell: “That certainly did not happen because I would certainly remember it. I don’t think in fact it’s ever happened to my face in 50 years of priesthood and secondly, I would have been absolutely shocked in that coming – being said to me by a person who phoned me as a friend. That part of the conversation I’m afraid to say that that’s just not true.”

Updated

Gerald Ridsdale did 'good things', Pell says

Pell is being pressed by abuse survivor David Ridsdale’s lawyer about why he walked to court with the notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale when he faced charges.

Lawyer: “You walked to court with Gerald Ridsdale in May of 1993, didn’t you?

Pell: “I did.”

Lawyer: “You knew Gerald Ridsdale was pleading guilty to a number of child abuse offences?”

Pell: “I certainly did.”

Lawyer: “Yet, quite literally you stood beside him in public.”

Pell: “I had been asked either to appear – well certainly I was asked to appear in the court and/or give a reference. There were prolonged discussions with the lawyer. I made it quite clear that I was not going to dispute any of the allegations, that I was not going to imply any disrespect for the victims, the survivors, and I certainly was proposing to say that although I was unaware of much of what he’d done, that already it had done great damage to the church.

“The only thing I would say was that as a priest he’d done other good things like burying the dead and celebrating the sacraments, etc. His lawyer was not willing to have me stand up in court and say that. He said, ‘No, we won’t call you. Would you walk to the court with him?’ And I said yes. I now realise that was a mistake.”

Updated

Pell: 'I've never discouraged anyone from going to the police'

Father Gerald Ridsdale committed more than 130 offences against children as young as four between the 1960s and 80s, including while working as a school chaplain at St Alipius boys’ school in Ballarat. He is now in prison. Ridsdale’s nephew, David Ridsdale, was one of his victims, and he told Pell he was being abused. David Ridsdale has maintained that when he told Pell about the abuse, Pell encouraged him to keep quiet about it, and that Pell asked him what it would take to keep him quiet.

Pell has just told the commission David Ridsdale’s account of events is “implausible”.

It is implausible that I tried to bribe him for a number of reasons. The first of those was that I was aware that the police were already speaking to his uncle and so therefore I would have no motive in trying to prevent him going to the police.

I’ve never discouraged anyone from going to the police. It’s implausible because I was an auxiliary bishop and I had no access to money or – no access to significant resources. It’s implausible because I was an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne and this was a matter for the Ballarat diocese. And it’s implausible because, of course, the attempt to bribe someone is criminal.

Updated

David Ridsdale was abused by his uncle, notorious Ballarat pedophile Father Gerald Ridsdale. Pell admits to the commission that the fact he accompanied Gerald Ridsdale to court may have been upsetting to David.

Lawyer: “You accept, I think, that he’s [David Ridsdale] always believed right from the day of the phone call that you tried to keep him quiet?

Pell: “I don’t know quite what he believed from that day but if he says that’s the case I’ve certainly got no proof to the contrary. I suspect the fact that I accompanied his uncle to the court would have been something that displeased and upset him.”

Updated

Pell now says he was ambushed by 60 Minutes presenter Richard Carleton in an interview with him in 2002.

“I was ambushed on television,” Pell says.

Lawyer: “You told Richard Carleton that you thought the conversation [with David Ridsdale about his being abused] occurred after Gerald Ridsdale was in jail, didn’t you?”

Pell: “Yes, I had no prior notice that this matter was going to be brought up. My recall is not perfect and there are some details there which some suggestions which I think proved not to be true and Id on’t know whether it was so much a statement as a question asking just what was the sequence of events at that time.”

Lawyer: “And you accept that the conversation occurred before he was even charged?”

Pell: “Yes, I now know that’s the case.”

Updated

David Ridsdale’s lawyer is asking Pell what he did to help Ridsdale after he called Pell to say that he was being abused by his uncle, Father Gerald Ridsdale. Pell says that because he regarded David Ridsdale as a friend, he was “more relaxed and loose” in his approach to providing help to him.

Lawyer: “Did you ever provide any help to David?”

Pell: “No, I don’t think I did.”

Lawyer: “Did you ever organise any help for him?”

Pell: “No, because I didn’t – I phoned his home on at least one occasion to try to speak with him. He was not there and I was ringing up to see how he was going and what I could do. I don’t think I heard from him again at that time stage.”

Lawyer: “Did you seek to obtain any form of counselling for him?”

Pell: “That was certainly one of the possibilities that went through my mind and if he had wanted to ask me to do that I certainly would have been happy to do so.”

Lawyer: “I’m sorry, I thought you’d agree with me that you didn’t dispute that he expressed a desire for something like a private process to address his needs?

Pell: “I don’t dispute that. I have no recollection of him asking me to set it up.”

Lawyer: “And you didn’t feel that you should make any – take any steps to attempt to set it up?”

Pell: “No, I didn’t because I was a Melbourne auxiliary bishop and the problem had occurred and was going to be dealt with in the Ballarat diocese. If I had been a little bit more careful, I would have suggested to David that I was the Melbourne official and therefore it would be much better if he dealt directly with Ballarat. I regarded him as a friend and so I was a bit more relaxed and loose in my approach to him and in how I could help him because I regarded him as a friend.”

Lawyer: “But in fact, Cardinal, you didn’t do anything for him, isn’t that right?”

Pell: “I spoke to him at some length. He did not ask me to do anything. If he had asked me to do any one or a number of things, I certainly would have done so.”

Updated

Pell: "I regret the choice of words. It was badly expressed."

Lawyer: Now, you deny that you tried to persuade David Ridsdale to keep quiet about the abuse of him by Gerald Ridsdale?

Pell: “Well, I’m not even sure what keeping quiet means. I do dispute it, but for a man who was expressing a preference for a church hearing rather than going to the police, I wouldn’t have had any dispute with him on that score, although I have never impeded or discouraged anyone from going to the police.”

Lawyer: “In your evidence on Tuesday, you said, ‘I had no reason to turn my mind to the extent of the evils that [Gerald] Ridsdale had perpetrated.’” Do you remember saying that?”

Pell: “No, I don’t.”

Lawyer: “You said on Tuesday, and I can take you to the transcript if necessary, that Father Ridsdale interfering with children at Inglewood was “a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me”. Do you remember saying that?”

Pell: “I remember messing up this sequence completely. I regret the choice of words. I was very confused, I responded poorly.”

Updated

The commission begins

In May, the commission heard allegations that Pell encouraged the child sex abuse victim David Ridsdale, who is the nephew and victim of Gerald Francis Ridsdale, to keep quiet about his abuse.

The commission also previously heard evidence which suggested Pell was involved in the decision to move Ridsdale between parishes once the abuse came to light, including parishes in Mildura, Swan Hill, Warrnambool, Apollo Bay, Ballarat and Mortlake.

David Ridsdale’s lawyer is now questioning Pell.

Lawyer: “I appear for David Ridsdale and I want to ask you some questions about a telephone conversation you had with him in early 1993 when he told you that he had been sexually abused by his uncle, the priest Father Gerald Ridsdale. I understand you accept that you had that telephone conversation but you do not accept the account of the details of that conversation given by David Ridsdale.”

Pell: “We differ on some substantial matters.”

Lawyer: “I understand. And particularly you don’t accept that you said to him ‘What would it take for you to keep quiet?’”

Pell: “No, I certainly don’t accept that.”

Updated

Survivors of child sexual abuse have held a press conference in Rome, with the final day of evidence minutes away from starting. They’ve confirmed they are meeting with Pell tomorrow. It’s unclear whether their requested meeting with Pope Francis has been confirmed though.

Updated

I’ve just spoken to Leonie Sheedy, head of the Care Leavers Australia Network, which represents survivors of child sexual abuse is foster homes and orphanages. She’s been protesting outside the commission in Sydney along with other survivors for every day of the evidence. She tells me:

I think Pell’s lost all credibility, and he’s done the damage himself. The evidence indicates he’s lied. How can a man with the highest credentials in the Catholic church not be aware of those pedophile priests and continue put others under a series of buses, including Ronald Mulkearns, who is dying, and Archbishop Frank Little, who is dead.

Furness and McClellan, you could see, were exasperated by the dishonesty. We’d like to hear now from the personal secretaries to Pell and others in the church at the time this abuse was occurring. If people were apparently withholding information from people like Pell, we need to hear from the gatekeepers of that information.”

Updated

Guardian cartoonist First Dog on the Moon has provided his take on the evidence so far here. He says:

While the rape and torture of hundreds of children swirled around him, a monstrous wailing storm of blood and terror and unimaginable sin ... Pell heard nothing.

Updated

It seems survivors at the hearings in Rome are about to make a statement ... I’ll keep you posted if and when this happens.

Updated

If Pope Francis wants to retain his reputation as the people’s pope he must force Cardinal George Pell to either resign or retire, writes Joanne McCarthy for Fairfax. Read her full piece here, and in the meantime here’s an excerpt:

Cardinal George Pell has to resign. Before the week is out, and on the back of his evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the cardinal must go, and Pope Francis must be involved.

If not, the Catholic Church in Australia is going to bleed numbers indefinitely. The Pope’s statements about child sexual abuse will be seen as nothing but more words from a church whose standing has been trashed on the issue, and shockingly so over the past three days.

We’re about 20 minutes away from the commission commencing.

Updated

Guardian writer David Marr has analysed yesterday’s evidence:

When Pell began to sketch the outlines of a grubby conspiracy by the Catholic Education Office to keep him in the dark in order to protect the inaction of Little, both the chair of the commission, Peter McClellan, and counsel assisting Gail Furness SC expressed frank disbelief.

Pell denied concocting his evidence to deflect blame from his own inaction. He insisted he had done his duty – his whole duty – by taking the Searson case to Little. “I was not obliged to do more than that.”

He cut a wretched figure in the witness box. After a couple of hours of interrogation he began to look like one of those Francis Bacon portraits of beefy men under torture. On that grey screen, the only colour was his face.

Everyone in the upper reaches of the Melbourne church failed those children. But not until the documents were marshalled today by the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse was the scale of the failure – or perhaps its stench – so apparent.

Marr’s piece on day three is here, while you can read his analysis of day two here and day one here.

Updated

Melissa Davey with you here as we enter the fourth and final day of evidence from Cardinal George Pell before Australia’s royal commission into institution responses into child sexual abuse.

It’s fair to say Pell has not come off well in the proceedings so far. Counsel assisting, Gail Furness, has twice accused Pell of giving evidence that was “implausible”.

It was implausible that he did not know that notorious pedophile priests, Gerald Ridsdale and Peter Searson were abusing children while everyone else around him did, as was his theory that the Catholic Education Office told senior figures in the church about Searson’s abuse but did not tell him, she said.

Pell says the education office kept him in the dark because they thought he would ask “difficult questions” if the abuse was revealed to him. Justice Peter McClellan told Pell that made no sense.

If the education office wanted to avoid questions being asked, they wouldn’t have told several senior church figures about the abuse, or provided Pell with a list of complaints about Searson’s behaviour, including that he tortured animals in front of children, the commission has heard.

Pell said this wasn’t enough evidence for him to become aware of the full extent of Searson’s abusive nature, or to remove him.

So frustrated have the survivors of child sexual abuse become with Pell’s evidence that they’ve called for a meeting with Pope Francis.

McClellan and Furness have now finished their questioning. With day four about to begin in half an hour, Pell will face questions from lawyers representing victims and the church.

You can share your thoughts with me onTwitter or on Facebook as we go.

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
California women try to hit on men by sending them hashbrowns at London restaurant. It doesn’t go as planned:‘Yeah you can’t really do that in London’
Sending someone restaurant food is a pretty common flirting tactic in the U.S. However, as one TikToker found out, the same can’t be said for the U.K.
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
The Hidden Effects of Screen Time on Children's Health, Sleep, and Development
Discover how excessive screen time affects children's health, sleep, and development, and learn practical tips to manage digital habits for healthier, balanced growth.
Medical Daily
Medical Daily
Barry Keoghan: 'There’s a lot of hate online. It’s a lot of abuse of how I look'
Barry Keoghan has considered quitting acting due to abuse over his looks and says he finds it hard to deal with the comments.
BANG Premier
BANG Premier
Best thing I ever ate? My first In-N-Out burger in LA
Why the Double-Double is ‘the near perfect expression of burger-ness’
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
How AI English and human English differ – and how to decide when to use artificial language
Suspicion and affection. Apprehension and excitement. Most people have mixed feelings about AI English, whether or not they always recognize it. When reading text generated by AI, people feel it sounds off, or fake. When reading English by a human, people are more likely to feel it has a characteristic…
The Conversation
The Conversation
Delilah and Me
Back in 2002, I heard a great question, from Betchen and Paul Barber: Who cut off Samson's hair? Of course… The post Delilah and Me appeared first on Reason.com.
Reason
Reason
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play