Southwell inquiry
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The Southwell inquiry was an investigation by AJ Southwell, a former Australian judge, into sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, specifically allegations that in 1961 George Pell, then a seminarian and later Archbishop of Sydney, had abused a 12-year-old boy, now a 53-year-old man who could not be named, at a Roman Catholic youth camp.
Hon AJ Southwell, QC, a retired judge and an Anglican, was appointed a commissioner by the National Committee for Professional Standards (NCPS), the church's internal process for dealing with allegations of sexual misconduct, to conduct an inquiry into the allegations. The commissioner stated that it was "an inquiry, not an adversarial process in which the complainant bears the onus of proof. However, my task, as set out in the Terms of Reference, is to decide 'whether or not the complaint has been established'".[1] Since the allegations "amounted to the crime of indecent assault, which, at that time [1961-62] was punishable by imprisonment for a term of up to 10 years Crimes Act 1958, s.68 et al.", the level of proof must be high.[2]
Allegations dating back to 1975
The complainant claimed to have first made the allegations to his wife around 1975. Southwell says: "As to motive, ... extensive enquiries made on behalf of the respondent (Pell) have unearthed no evidence of any other matter or incident which might have aroused spite or malice on the part of the complainant towards either the respondent or the Church. On the other hand, the respondent has had a strong motive to push memory (if there ever was memory) of these fleeting incidents by a 19 year old into the recesses of the mind, from which there could be no recall."[3] Southwell found no evidence that the complaint was made through vindictiveness or desire for compensation.