“For the past three decades, cases of abuse of children by clergy from Island to the United States and Chile to Poland had come to the surface. There were thousands of victims. The handling of the cases was made worse by the seemingly common modus operandi to always protect the church first, no matter what; to silence the victims and pay them off when necessary because reputation came above justice and the safety of children.”
& so, here is a vital compendium & detailed testimony – albeit suffering from multiple flaws & omissions – for anybody wishing to penetrate this horrific, landmark case, or the insidious phenomenon of large-scale & high-ranking child sexual abuse & coverup. As is so often the scenario in such cases where a high-profile, moneyed individual of the establishment representing a major institution (the Catholic Church once again here) is prosecuted, the very nature of the trial itself is often skewed from the outset, in what we can call out & identify for what it really is; rigging the legal process – aka – naked corruption. In this foul – but by no means rare – incident, large volumes of crucial evidence documenting the abusers long sordid history were not allowed to be presented to the trial or published in the press. Essentially, the smoking guns would be removed both from the trial/jurors & also the public at large …. if that is not a “cover-up” (i.e. corruption) – I don’t know what the fuck is.
“, within hours of Pell being charged, a controversial court order in Melbourne ruled that media was prevented from publishing the exact number of charges and the number of complainants. We now know the media could not even explain to the public why there was missing information in the reports – it was also prevented from mentioning the existence of the suppression order itself. Later, a new suppression order created an even more draconian media blackout.”
For those that followed or researched the trial, they will remember that Pell was unanimously convicted on a series of very serious offences against two choirboys. From prison he launched an appeal. The second appeal attempt was rejected. Still in prison, he then launched a third & final appeal against the twice confirmed verdict. By this time, the legal technicians & behind the curtain dark arts of influence, manipulation & machination had covertly coalesced, & astonishingly, both previous verdicts were overturned, leaving Pell – a man who had just recently been convicted unanimously of multiple child sexual assault with an additional trailing-cargo heaving with child sexual abuse allegations – immediately free to leave prison.
During the phase of Pell’s incarceration, Rupert Murdoch’s demonic press behemoth had taken the extraordinary measure to vociferously & repeatedly defend George Pell in the pages & channels of it’s putrilage. Mr. Murdoch took the executive decision to staunchly & consistently back a man that had been unanimously convicted of raping & sexually abusing children at a historical trial.
Remember that.
this is during the first Levison Enquiry – David Cameron would go on to design & deliver Murdoch’s escape by cancelling the promised second phase of investigation – Levison Two, which was buried by his Conservative government on his watch.
George Pell’s defence lawyer, Robert Richter, would go on to cause outrage by stating publicly that Pell’s sexual abuse of two underage choir boys was “vanilla” – “This is no more than a plain, vanilla sexual penetration case where a child is not volunteering or actively participating,”.
Thinking out loud.
This is partly where this book falters, not on any behalf attributable to the author, but simply due to the time frame of publication before this additional “perversion of justice” could conspire (Pell was acquitted in April 2020). Another serious error & absence is Lucie’s failure to question & investigate why Murdoch took such a keen crusade in publicly defending the convicted paedophile, both prior to his conviction & internment & after. Although she reveals the suppression of her reporting from fellow journalists & executives from within her network, Murdoch is barely mentioned despite him being the primary perpetrator of this well orchestrated & powerful chicanery & sabotage – aka – corruption.
The second problem is that the book is too long. Exactly the same expanse of information could have been relayed in 200 pages or less without the sprawling & laborious minutiae that becomes very dry & arduous after 150 pages (it is a great shame that some of this surplus could not have gone towards scrutinizing Murdoch’s dogged defense of the serial child rapist).
Baring these considerable faults in mind, one can still clearly conclude that this is extremely important journalism. Specifically, it gives us a detailed account of the litany of obscenity that plagues Pell’s past (& many other fiends of The Cloth), something that has been almost completely withheld from the public domain due to the tampering with disclosure & engineered secrecy that was deliberately applied to his trial & the subsequent reporting on it & it’s surrounding allegations. It does not just indicate Pell as a serial sexual abuser of boys & young vulnerable males, but also the close working relationship, defense & protection that he afforded to other child rapists within the clergy. This included the repellent & sick Gerald Risdale. The notorious Risdale was eventually convicted of sexual offenses against over 65 children, the youngest of whom was just four years old.
As Rupert Murdoch would defend George Pell, so Pell had ardently defended Gerald Risdale, infamously accompanying him to his first trial (the two had also been housemates) for sexual crimes against children – stating later in defense that “he was not aware of the full extent of the allegations against Risdale and was supporting him purely out of duty in his roles as a priest.”
The Catholic Church is the world’s largest paedophile organization. Statistically, culturally, this recidivist rapist sodality continues to harbour, promote, protect, export & proliferate institutionalized paedophilia, almost openly. The casualties & “scandals” go on amassing in ever swelling volumes & bulk. Where I wonder, is QAnon in all this? But of course, QAnon is the false decoy – dispensed by the very perpetrators to misdirect a world that is getting sick of the “special exemption” granted to such individuals & institutions that get away with it & get away with it & get away with it.
Sir Jimmy Savile was of course given a Papal Knighthood …. it has still not been revoked.
“the Catholic stronghold of Ballarat was in fact one of the epicentres of clergy abuse in Australia. It played host to manipulative, hypocritical priests and Christian Brothers teachers, in particular, who were grooming altar boys, school children, choirboys, orphans and the children of trusting parishioners. They all exploited the same golden ticket: they used their trust in communities to carry out their crimes, often quite brazenly, in dark corners of churches, presbyteries, or sometimes on weekends away to beach houses and cabins on the Victorian coast. They would tell the children the abuse would bring them ‘closer to God’ and threaten them into silence.”
Why is Rupert Murdoch so keen to support George Pell? Why go to such lengths & risk real reputational damage to so fervently support a convicted child rapist? What’s in it for Rupert? What does Rupert relate to? With his reputation as an arch fixer, super blackmailer, master of the dark arts & wielder of immense “dirty power”, who’s shimmering empire of crime, corruption & contamination has officially landed him in the dock himself (he may well of been in jail now if it was not for the intervention & protection of the then prime minister David Cameron who so controversially “killed off” the second Levison Inquiry that he had previously promised would transpire) – how much did he effect the behind the scenes mechanics of the third appeal? & the trial itself that would on the third attempt overturn a verdict that had initially been unanimous? Corruption.
Rupert Murdoch cut-his-teeth in the “dark arts” by learning directly from a scion of the malefic craft – the uniquely notorious, deeply repugnant bent-lawyer & fixer Roy Cohn. Roy Cohn (who would also go on to mentor both Donald Trump & Roger Stone) was also a paedophile, child sex trafficker & sexual blackmail specialist, among many other awful & deeply criminal activities & associations. As well as serving as Murdoch’s advisor & fixer, Roy also represented Murdoch as his personal lawyer for years & was instrumental for introducing Murdoch to the Regan administration – allowing Murdoch to secure the foundation that would go on to yield baneful poison Fox News & beyond. Roy Cohn also represented Cardinal Joseph Spellman – another high ranking & influential Catholic child rapist.
A repeating pattern.
On Pell’s acquittal & swift release, Pope Francis made the following public announcement comparing George Pell to Jesus – “Francis did not mention Pell by name at mass, but compared the suffering of those inflicted with “unjust sentences” to the way Jewish community elders persecuted Jesus with “obstinacy and rage even though he was innocent”. The pope also tweeted about the persecution of Jesus, without making specific reference to Pell. “In these days of Lent, we’ve been witnessing the persecution that Jesus underwent and how He was judged ferociously, even though He was innocent. “Let us pray together today for all those persons who suffer due to an unjust sentence because someone had it in for them.”
The Catholic Church needs to be put on trial, in entirety. If any vaguely decent investigative entity is assembled, given the jurisdiction, legal authority & allowed to probe (it should all be public) – the horror that will quickly gush forth will be unstoppable. Prosecute, convict & confine the lot of them & denounce then permanently liquidate the whole sick, corrupt, insane, criminal enterprise & let the world move on from this perverse stain & insult to the species. Nothing short & nothing less.
Fallen also demonstrates how resoundingly corrupt the judiciary, legal process & system is in the developed world, & how malleable & manipulable the entire function is for the most revolting, the most lowly & the most moneyed within our society. The art of stifling, massively diminishing or quietly excluding critical news & journalism “kill the story” from within a publication, & externally, is also laid bare … a malpractice that Mr Murdoch has spent part of his life perfecting to great proficiency. Corruption.
setting aside considerable errors – Fallen is an essential tranche of detailed incrimination for anybody wanting to hold these vermin to account.
Lucie Morris-Marr, 2019, Alan & Unwin, 336 pages
“We found all sorts of reasons to excuse them. I continue to be astounded that the guys I knew and the bishops I know continue to sweep it under the carpet and go from parish to parish. It remains incomprehensible to me”.