--Previous Message--
: How David Marr smeared George Pell
: Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun
: November 26, 2016 4:00pm
:
: No journalist has tried harder than David
: Marr to smear Cardinal George Pell as a liar
: who covered up for pedophile priests and
: even enabled their crimes. The evidence
: against Pell is actually melting away.
:
: Now Gerard Henderson exposes 13 of Marr's
: worst false claims, omissions and baseless
: smears. Please read it all.
:
: Here are some highlights, so to speak, from
: Henderson's fact-checking of Marr's most
: comprehensive smear sheet on Pell - his
: extended essay The Prince – Faith, Abuse
: & George Pell (Black Inc, 2014):
:
: The fact is that much of David Marr’s
: case against Cardinal Pell collapses when
: reference is made to evidence heard by the
: Royal Commission and to Counsel-Assisting’s
: submissions to the Royal Commission.
:
: The essential problem with David Marr’s
: The Prince turns on the author’s naivety.
: Put simply, when it comes to critics of
: George Pell – David Marr assumes that they
: have excellent memories and are completely
: rational. Also, David Marr believes
: virtually everything the police say – when
: it applies to Cardinal Pell, at least...
:
: Howler Number 1 – Page 8
:
: David Marr writes:
:
: …the pressure on the [Ted] Baillieu
: government [in Victoria] to hold an inquiry
: [into clerical child sexual abuse] became
: irresistible when the Age published a
: confidential report accusing the Catholic
: Church of protecting paedophiles and showing
: little sympathy for their victims. Victoria
: Police linked forty suicides in the state to
: abuse by half a dozen priests and brothers
: alone. Detective Sergeant Kevin Carson
: wrote: “It would appear that an
: investigation would uncover many more deaths
: are a consequence of clergy sexual abuse.”
: ...
:
: For a man with a self-proclaimed
: interest in human rights, David Marr has a
: surprising gullibility when it comes to
: accepting, at face value and without
: checking, police evidence. As John Ferguson
: reported in The Australian on 25 July 2015,
: Victoria Police has only been able to
: identify one confirmed suicide with
: church-related abuse. Leading Senior
: Constable Tania Siegemund provided the
: following critique of Sergeant Carson’s
: claim (which was endorsed uncritically by
: Marr) in an internal report dated 1 November
: 2012:
:
: There are significant limitations to the
: data supplied by Detective Sergeant Carson,
: which have resulted in a significant number
: of the nominated premature deaths for review
: remaining unable to be verified, as the
: persons of interest are unidentifiable.
: These include the identifying particulars of
: individuals such as dates of birth, full
: names and addresses, details of alleged
: offences or offenders and years of alleged
: childhood sexual abuse. It was not possible
: to identify 18 of the 43 persons in the
: report, as per the data limitations and
: intelligence gaps discussed above.
:
: Of course, one suicide related to
: clerical child sexual abuse is appalling.
: But the point here is that Victoria Police
: in 2012 grossly exaggerated the situation.
: And David Marr accepted Victoria Police’s
: claims without checking. In short, he did no
: independent research.
:
: Howler Number 2 – Pages 8-9
:
: David Marr writes:
:
: [George] Pell said he was willing to
: appear [at the Victorian Parliamentary
: Inquiry]. As public hearings were about to
: begin in October 2013, Victoria Police
: attacked the Catholic Church again, this
: time accusing the Melbourne archdiocese of
: hindering investigations, protecting
: priests, silencing victims and failing to
: “proactively seek out” offenders. They also
: attacked the process Pell had put in place
: in Melbourne in the 1990s to inquire into
: abuse and compensate victims. [As Victoria
: Police’s submission to the Victoria
: Parliamentary Inquiry stated.]:
:
: Victoria Police has serious concerns
: regarding the terms of this inquiry process
: and its appearance as a de facto substitute
: for criminal justice. As noted on its
: website, the Melbourne Response has made a
: number of ex-gratia payments to victims. In
: spite of this, it has not referred a single
: complaint to Victoria Police.
:
: Once again, David Marr naively accepted
: – without checking Victoria Police’s claim –
: that under the Melbourne Response, which was
: set up by the (then) Archbishop of Melbourne
: George Pell in 1996, not a “single
: compliant” was referred to Victoria Police.
:
: This statement was incorrect. As Peter
: O’Callaghan submitted to the Victorian
: Parliamentary Inquiry. [Note the punctuation
: has been altered to facilitate
: comprehension] :
:
: Of the 304 relevant upheld complaints
: that have been made to 30 June 2012 (only
: two of which were made by complainants who
: were children at the time of their
: complaints):
:
: (i) 97 [complaints] have been reported
: to the police (87 were reported prior to and
: 10 were reported subsequent to a complaint
: being made through the Melbourne Response).
: (ii) 115 [complaints] were made in respect
: of offenders who were already dead at the
: time of the complaint. (iii) 9 [complaints]
: were made in respect of offenders who
: resided overseas at the date of complaint.
: And (iv) 4 [complaints] were made in respect
: of offenders whom the complainant could not
: identify.
:
: Of the remaining 79 complaints: First,
: 76 complainants were encouraged by me to go
: to the Police (and at least 25 of these
: complainants expressed some reluctance to do
: so). Second, there is no express
: encouragement to go to the Police located on
: the file of the remaining 3 complainants.
: However, one complainant was provided with
: the Melbourne Response brochure which
: contained an encouragement to go to the
: Police; one complainant had their complaint
: accepted without the need for a hearing; and
: one complainant made a complaint that was
: unlikely to constitute criminal assault.
:
: Peter O’Callaghan QC’s submission
: rebutting Victoria Police’s evidence
: concerning the Melbourne Response has not
: been refuted by (now) Commissioner Graham
: Ashton or anyone else at Victoria Police. In
: its report, the Victoria Parliamentary
: Inquiry found that Peter O’Callaghan’s
: submission was essentially correct...
:
: Howler Number 4 – Page 18
:
: David Marr refers to George Pell’s
: shared accommodation with the pedophile
: priest Gerald Ridsdale when he [Pell]
: returned to Ballarat from Europe in 1973:
:
: When young Father George Pell moved his
: things into the presbytery in 1973, that
: corner of Ballarat was one of the most
: dangerous places in Australia for children.
: Already living in the presbytery was Father
: Gerald Ridsdale, chaplain at the little
: primary school standing on the other side of
: the church. He was raping the children. All
: four members of the staff, all Christian
: Brothers, were abusing the children in the
: school. They would not be exposed for twenty
: years. George Pell, back from his studies in
: Rome and Oxford, noticed nothing.
:
: This is the familiar “I knew nothing” –
: or “he knew nothing” – smear directed at
: someone who allegedly is not telling the
: truth. David Marr was not aware at the time
: of writing The Prince that fellow journalist
: Paul Bongiorno (when a priest of the
: Ballarat diocese) also once shared
: accommodation with Ridsdale in Warrnambool.
:
: On 21 May 2015, Paul Bongiorno told Fran
: Kelly on the ABC Radio National Breakfast
: program, in answer to a pre-arranged
: question on the morning that the Royal
: Commission’s hearings on the Catholic
: diocese of Ballarat commenced, about his
: previously unpublicised relationship with
: Ridsdale. Mr Bongiorno made the following
: point:
:
: Paul Bongiorno: … I grew up in Ballarat.
: I went to Ballarat Catholic schools — St
: Patrick’s College and Drummond Street, run
: by the Christian Brothers. And I was
: inspired by what I heard and by the lives of
: men — both priests and brothers — by the
: ideals and the values that they had in terms
: of social justice and human welfare and
: well-being and belief in God, to go off and
: become a Catholic priest… I know Gerald
: Ridsdale. I lived in a presbytery with him
: in Warrnambool. I’ve had the victims
: approach me to appear for them in court
: cases. Let me tell you this Fran, I had no
: idea what he was up to. And when people look
: at me quizzically, I say: “Well look, let me
: tell you this. There are married men and
: women now who sleep with their husbands and
: wives who don’t know that their husband or
: wife is having an affair.” Let me tell you
: that Ridsdale never came into the presbytery
: in Warrnambool and said: “Guess how many
: boys I’ve raped today?” They hide it. It was
: certainly hidden from me…
:
: Since Paul Bongiorno’s revelation, David
: Marr has not sneered that Bongiorno “noticed
: nothing” when he was associated with
: Ridsdale in Warrnambool. It seems that, once
: again, Marr has one standard for Pell – and
: another for Bongiorno and others.
:
: Howler Number 6 – Page 50
:
: David Marr writes about (the then)
: Bishop Pell’s handling of the pedophile
: priest Peter Searson in the Melbourne parish
: of Doveton.
:
: A delegation of teachers came to Pell to
: complain about Searson in 1989. Whatever
: Pell did behind the scenes, the priest
: remained in the parish and at the school.
:
: According to evidence provided to the
: Royal Commission, the delegation of teachers
: which saw (then) Bishop Pell in 1989
: complained about industrial relations at
: Searson’s school – not Searson’s offending
: against children. Yet the clear implication
: in Marr’s The Prince is that the delegation
: complained about Searson’s sexual offending.
: Once again, David Marr did not check what he
: accepted as facts...
:
: Howler Number 7 – Pages 61-62
:
: David Marr supports the high-profile
: claim told by David Ridsdale (Gerald’s
: nephew) to 60 Minutes on a number of
: occasions that George Pell attempted to
: bribe him not to report Gerald Ridsdale’s
: offending against him to Victoria Police.
: This was a most serious allegation against
: Pell. This is how David Marr covered the
: matter:
:
: So he [David Ridsdale] turned to Bishop
: Pell. Their families were friends. He
: [David] had grown up in Ballarat calling
: this man George. He thought of him as a
: powerful man in the church who could do
: something tactful and effective about his
: uncle. In early February 1993 he rang Pell
: in Mentone…
:
: David Ridsdale was stunned by Pell’s
: response when he picked up the phone. “His
: reaction was so totally unexpected,” he
: would tell 60 Minutes a decade later. “He
: didn’t respond to anything I said. He sort
: of cut me off.” Pell seemed angry and
: somehow blaming his young caller for causing
: his distress. He remembers Pell saying:
: “David, you have a young family, you will
: have to make purchases like houses and
: cars.” David was confused. “All of a sudden
: I just stopped and went, ‘George, I’m
: totally lost. Can you please tell me what
: you were trying to say here?” He has never
: since wavered in his claim that Pell
: replied: “I want you to know what it will
: take to keep you quiet.” David was furious.
: “It changed everything,” he told 60 Minutes.
: “I said, ‘F-ck you and f-ck everything you
: stand for,’ and I hung up.” Then he rang the
: police.
:
: He also spoke that day to his sisters
: [Patricia Ridsdale and Bernadette Lukaitis].
: One, Bernie, remembered him saying Pell
: wanted to know what it would take “to make
: it go away.” Trish remembered her brother
: saying: “The bastard tried to offer me a
: bribe.” Pell does not deny offering David
: Ridsdale assistance of some kind, a gesture
: he believes was misunderstood.
:
: In her submission to the Royal
: Commission, Counsel-Assisting Gail Furness
: submitted that there is insufficient
: evidence to support David Ridsdale’s account
: of his phone conversation with George Pell
: in 1993. As the Counsel-Assisting has
: written:
:
: It is submitted that Mr Ridsdale’s
: evidence of his conversation with Bishop
: Pell is a true account of what he believed
: occurred during that conversation. The
: evidence of Ms Ridsdale and Mrs Lukaitis is
: however not direct evidence of Mr Ridsdale’s
: conversation with Bishop Pell.
:
: Cardinal Pell gave evidence that in the
: conversation he offered Mr Ridsdale his
: assistance and expressed his desire to help.
: It is possible that when Bishop Pell spoke
: to Mr Ridsdale and offered his assistance,
: in a conversation in which Mr Ridsdale had
: spoken of his desire for a private process,
: Mr Ridsdale misinterpreted Bishop Pell’s
: offer of assistance.
:
: Given Mr Ridsdale gave evidence that he
: expressed a desire to Bishop Pell for a
: private process, it is not likely that
: Bishop Pell would then have thought it
: necessary to offer Mr Ridsdale an inducement
: to prevent him from going to the police or
: public with his allegations. Cardinal Pell
: gave evidence that the time of his
: conversation with Mr Ridsdale, he was aware
: that police had spoken to [Gerald] Ridsdale
: in connection with child sexual abuse
: allegations, which makes this further
: unlikely.
:
: For these reasons, it is submitted that
: the evidence is not sufficient to establish
: that in their telephone conversation in
: early February 1993, Bishop Pell sought to
: bribe Mr Ridsdale to prevent him from going
: to the police or from going public with
: allegations against his uncle.
:
: Once again, David Marr simply accepted
: what David Ridsdale said – as if Mr Ridsdale
: is possessed of a perfect memory. This in
: spite of the fact that Justice Peter
: McClellan himself has previously warned of
: the “fallibility of memory”.
:
: Howler Number 13 – Page 182
:
: In his final chapter, David Marr’s
: writing indicates that he supports the
: following comment:
:
: Those who admire him [Cardinal Pell]
: forgave him his testimony [at the Royal
: Commission], as they always will. But his
: testimony enraged many Catholics who had
: learnt to endure the man. That he was going
: [to Rome] tempered their rage. But there
: were many who echoed David Ridsdale’s
: verdict: “Pell is a power-hungry,
: ladder-climbing opportunist.”
:
: What David Marr has never reported – in
: his writings in The Guardian or elsewhere –
: is that David Ridsdale is a convicted
: pedophile and that Gail Furness SC has
: submitted to the Royal Commission that there
: is insufficient evidence to support David
: Ridsdale’s claim that George Pell once tried
: to bribe him. Yet David Marr made much of
: this allegation in The Prince. The problem
: is that, due to his hostility to Cardinal
: Pell, David Marr is willing to accept,
: without checking, virtually any anti-Pell
: position. How naïve can you get?
:
:
Responses « Back to index | View thread »