MELBOURNE: Australian Cardinal George Pell spent his first night behind bars on Wednesday following his historic conviction for child sex crimes, capping an extraordinary fall from grace for one of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church.

Once among Pope Francis’ closest advisers and the most senior Catholic cleric ever found guilty of child sex crimes, Pell returned to court for a pre-sentencing hearing a day after his conviction was made public on Tuesday.

The 77-year-old is facing up to 50 years’ jail after being convicted on five counts of sexual and indecent assault of two choirboys in the sacristy of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996-97, shortly after Pell became archbishop of Melbourne.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Chief Judge Peter Kidd blasted Pell’s behaviour at Saint Patrick’s as “callous, brazen offending”. A later Vatican statement said it had opened its own investigation into Pell’s conduct, which could result in a canonical trial and his eventual expulsion from the priesthood.

Pell was found guilty in December of assaulting the two choirboys, but the verdict was only revealed on Tuesday after a second trial against him was abandoned.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2019