Pell worried by US abuse payouts

Cardinal George Pell has given evidence at the royal commission into child sexual abuse in Sydney. Source: AAP

CARDINAL George Pell was worried by sexual abuse case payouts that had bankrupted some US churches and wanted to prevent similar payouts in Australia, an inquiry has heard.

Dr Pell, the former archbishop of Sydney, told the royal commission into child sexual abuse that he had been concerned by verdicts in US courts where large payouts to victims had bankrupted some dioceses.

He denied, however, that he wanted sexual abuse victims to go through the Catholic church's internal system, Towards Healing, rather than the courts, so that the church could control the size of payouts.

Under questioning from Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan, Dr Pell agreed that, since his time as archbishop of Melbourne, he had been concerned about the US payouts to victims.

He did not want a similar situation in Australia because "Australia is not America" where there are "an enormous number of lawyers".

But Dr Pell also did not want the church to be treated differently to any other Australian institution in answering claims of sexual abuse.

"I did not want that to happen just to us," he said.

The commission was shown a 2007 letter to the archdiocese from its lawyers that described a court ruling that the church's trustees could not be sued as a significant and favourable outcome.

The lawyers said the court's ruling "places a significant number of obstacles" that would have to be overcome by claimants pursuing abuse cases through the courts rather than through Towards Healing.

Earlier, Dr Pell said he instructed lawyers to vigorously defend the case against abuse victim John Ellis to make other potential complainants reconsider going to court.

Counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, asked Dr Pell if he had wanted to make plaintiffs "think twice" about suing the church.

Dr Pell said he wanted them to "think clearly".

"They should consider the advantages in not going to litigation," he said.

He admitted the church didn't deal fairly with Mr Ellis "from a Christian point of view", but in a legal sense it did nothing improper.

Dr Pell said he was consoled by a legal ruling protecting the church's property trustees from being sued.

The commission has heard the archdiocese of Sydney has property and cash worth $1.2 billion.

Mr Ellis sued the church over the abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest between the ages of 13 to 17 in the 1970s, but lost the case in 2007 when a court ruled the trustees weren't liable.

Lawyers disputed in court that the abuse had occurred, cross-examining Mr Ellis over a number of days, despite the church having previously accepted that it had happened.

Dr Pell said he regretted the action.

"I regret that. I was told that it was a legally proper tactic," he said.

The church subsequently pursued Mr Ellis for $550,000 in costs, despite a psychiatrist assessing Mr Ellis as being in a fragile mental state.

The inquiry continues.

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