MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA) – A dozen Australian media firms have okayed to plead guilty for breaching a suppression order on reportage of the trial and conviction of former Vatican treasurer George Pell in 2018 for child sexual assault, a court heard on Monday.
Pell was cleared last year from the sexual abuse charges after spending 13 months in jail.
The cardinal was found guilty by a jury in December 2018 of sexually assaulting two choirboys, which made him the highest-ranking Catholic official to be convicted on the basis of child sex crimes.
There were strict orders against reporting on the trial and verdict across Australia by the County Court of Victoria to make sure the cardinal got a fair trial on further charges he was likely to witness. Those charges were later dropped.
As part of the agreement announced on Monday, the state prosecutor said it rejected charges of sub judice contempt against all of the media firms, in addition to all charges against 15 reporters and editors at those newspapers, radio and television stations.
The unusual agreement was struck nearly two years after the charges were brought, nearly three months following the media trial and 10 months after Pell was acquitted by the High Court.
The state initially alleged that dozens of media, journalists and editors, mostly with News Corp and Nine Entertainment Co and its Fairfax arm, had breached the suppression order and interfered with the administration of justice in running those articles.
Breaches of suppression orders can lead to punishment of up to five years jail and fines of nearly A$100,000 for individuals and nearly A$500,000 for companies.
As of January, 79 charges remained.
Prosecutor Lisa De Ferrari told the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday, “The prosecution has resolved,”
She said, “Each corporate respondent has indicated that it will plead guilty in respect of each publication for which they are charged to contempt by breaching the proceeding suppression order.”
“Given the plea and the acceptance of responsibility in respect of each publication … the director (of public prosecutions) has determined that it is in the public interest to dismiss the remaining charges.”
The companies have also agreed to make payment for the costs of prosecution, she said.
The plea hearing has been set for Feb. 10-11.
Last week, former editor of the Age, Alex Lavelle, the first media witness to appear in the trial, told the court he published a story only as an explanation as to why the newspaper could not report the news that was being covered overseas, as the newspaper had received numerous queries from the public.
Matthew Collins, the lawyer representing Nine Entertainment, told the court that readers were “wondering if the Age was part of a Catholic church conspiracy”.
Lavelle said based on legal advice, he believed the article did not violate the suppression order.