Top Pope aide and Australia's highest-ranking Cardinal George Pell found guilty of raping 13-year-old choirboy
Australia's highest-ranking Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, on Tuesday, was found guilty of raping a 13-year-old choirboy and molesting another child in the 1990s. The 77-year-old, who is the Vatican's treasurer and one of Pope Francis' closest advisors, is the most senior member of the Catholic clergymen across the world to have been found guilty of child sex offenses.
A Melbourne jury, after three days of deliberations, found the Cardinal guilty of four counts of indecent assault and one count of rape. The verdict, however, was not revealed until after a court gag order was lifted on Tuesday, according to the Daily Mail.
Pell's conviction led some of the institutions in the country to strip him of multiple honors and titles. A Ballarat school even scratched "Pell" off a building, which was named in his honor. The Cardinal was spotted limping from court surrounded by a brigade of police officers wearing yellow vests and passers-by screamed expletives at him with some saying "rot in hell." Reports state that Pell has not been keeping well.