George Pell's lawyer says child abuse was 'plain vanilla' sex as cardinal heads to jail

Robert Richter QC withdraws bail application meaning his client will remain behind bars following his conviction for child sexual assault

Melissa Davey in Melbourne
Wed 27 Feb 2019 03.11 GMT

Cardinal George Pell’s bail application has been withdrawn and he will be jailed on Wednesday following a sentencing hearing in which Pell’s lawyer, Robert Richter, described one of Pell’s offences as a “plain vanilla sexual penetration case where the child is not actively participating”.

The former prime minister John Howard was among those who provided character references for Pell as the cardinal’s legal team tried to argue for a lower-end sentence for his conviction for sexually assaulting two 13-year-old boys in Melbourne’s county court on Wednesday morning.

That claim was rejected by the chief judge, Peter Kidd, who said he saw Pell’s behaviour as “callous, brazen offending” and “shocking conduct”.

“He did have in his mind some sense of impunity. How else did he think he would get away with this? There was an element of force here ... this is not anywhere near the lower end of offending.”

Richter’s renowned defence style was on full display, as he tried to argue with Kidd that there were “no aggravating circumstances” to one of Pell’s offences.

-snip-