Australia’s Victoria Court of Appeal on Friday refused to grant the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne leave to appeal an earlier decision concerning child sexual abuse allegations against the late Cardinal George Pell.
In February 2022, an individual referred to as RWQ filed a claim against the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne alleging mental harm and nervous shock as a result of being notified of the alleged sexual abuse of his late son by Cardinal Pell. The alleged abuse was said to have taken place between July and December 1996 and is believed to have greatly contributed to the deceased son’s drug misuse, leading up to his death on 8 April 2014. The claim relied on common law and Part XI of the Wrongs Act 1958.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne had previously challenged the decision, arguing that the Legal Identity of Defendants (Organisational Child Abuse) Act 2018 should not apply to RWQ’s claims, because he himself was not subjected to the abuse – he was considered a ‘secondary victim’. This act prevents non-governmental organisations from successfully raising an ‘Ellis defence,’ a principle based on a 2007 court case brought by abuse survivor John Ellis against the Catholic Church, in which the court decided church assets could not be targeted by survivors of child sexual abuse seeking compensation for crimes endured within the church. The ‘Ellis defence’ was abolished in Victoria in 2018 following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The appeal to the Victoria Court of Appeal revolved around the interpretation of the act. The Court of Appeal upheld the original judge’s interpretation that the act does apply to RWQ’s claims against the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne. The court reasoned that the phrasing ‘a claim founded on or arising from child abuse’ encompasses RWQ’s claim, and rejected the argument that the language barred RWQ from bringing suit in response to becoming aware of his son’s abuse.