Editor's note: On Tuesday 7 April 2020, the High Court in a unanimous decision upheld Cardinal Pell's appeal and quashed his convictions on all five charges.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Last week, the news that had been kept secret for nearly three months finally broke. Australia's highest-ranking Catholic... the man who rose to be the Vatican's third most powerful cleric.. had been convicted of sexual crimes against two 13-year-old boys.

A jury of 12 had found George Pell guilty of five, shocking offences...which all took place inside St Patrick's Cathedral...when Pell was Archbishop of Melbourne.

A suppression order banning publication of those convictions was lifted last week after the Crown decided to drop a second trial against the Cardinal on separate charges.

ANDREW LA GRECA, FORMER ST PATRICK'S CHOIRBOY: He was a man that was so high up in the hierarchy that he believed he was untouchable, but we believed that justice wouldn't be served that, uh, we're just wasting our time and effort.

FRANCIS SULLIVAN, FORMER CEO TRUTH JUSTICE AND HEALING COMMISSION: The credibility of the institutional Church is at an all time low. And this is what is so devastating about this conviction. It just makes it worse."

LES TYACK: Watching his progression and he's climbing within the Catholic Church, his name was regularly within the press. And every time Pell's name was there, um, a very clear recollection of what he'd been up to.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: And what did you think?

LES TYACK: You know, you're just that dirty, rotten, sneaky, conniving bastard.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: I have been following this case for three years, since I first met a group of men who broke decades of silence to reveal allegations of how their innocence was stolen by Cardinal George Pell when they were young boys. Tonight on 4 Corners, the inside story of how a prince of the Church was brought to justice.

It was 1996, and George Pell was the newly installed Archbishop of Melbourne.

The Church was grappling with an escalating scandal over clergy sexual abuse of children and the Archdiocese of Melbourne had more paedophile priests than anywhere else in the country.

Archbishop George Pell was in damage control.

GEORGE PELL, ARCHBISHOP OF MELBOURNE (1996): 'One or two lonely voices have suggested that the Catholic Church here is in a state of crisis. They are badly mistaken.'

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: In October 1996, Pell launched the Melbourne Response, the Church's new strategy for dealing with sexual abuse victims.

GEORGE PELL, ARCHBISHOP OF MELBOURNE (1996): I do want to stress that this is a genuine attempt to lessen the sufferings of the victims and to lessen the sufferings of their families. I am hopeful that with further improvements and refinements over time these initiatives will go a long way towards addressing this sad and deeply regrettable issue.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: This was the public face of George Pell. But only a few months after that press conference, we now know that the Archbishop was doing exactly what his scheme was set up to address: sexually abusing children. This was the case put by the Crown.

CROWN OPENING STATEMENT (ACTOR'S VOICE): As Your Honour pleases. Members of the jury, it's alleged in this case that on a Sunday morning, in the latter part of 1996, Archbishop George Pell, as he was then known... was saying 11 AM mass at St Patrick's Cathedral here in East Melbourne. As was customary, during Sunday mass, the St Patrick's Cathedral Church choir was singing accompanied by an organist.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: There were 61 boys in the choir. About half of them were sopranos.

ANDREW LA GRECA, FORMER ST PATRICK'S CHOIRBOY So the sopranos were like the younger children and then it was the altos which is when your voice starts to break then you turn into a tenor and a bass. The higher up you get, you look after the little boys, you look after them. And you sort of they're only little kids, so you got to show them a bit of, you know, discipline, "No, don't do that, do this." But at the end of the day you're still a child yourself. But you should always, you know, help them out, look after them.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: The choirboys were all on scholarships to attend the nearby St Kevin's College in wealthy Toorak. Andrew La Greca was one of the older boys in the choir.

ANDREW LA GRECA, FORMER ST PATRICK'S CHOIRBOY It was a big deal, it was a big deal. And for a northern boy to go all the way to Toorak it was prestige and was quite an achievement that your parents were proud of you, you were proud of, and to say that 'I went to school at St Kevin's', which is a prestige school, lots of opportunities.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: He says George Pell was often there when the boys practised.

ANDREW LA GRECA, FORMER ST PATRICK'S CHOIRBOY It was just George Pell, the Archbishop. The priest that lives at the church, he came to visit us. We didn't know if he lived there, lives somewhere else, but we just assume because it's the Archbishop, he lives at the church and used to be around listening to the choir. Coming to pastor, say hello, say thank you. We thought of it as a mark of respect that he's to take notice of us.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: On the day of the incident, the choir had just finished singing and filed out of St Patrick's in procession.

ANDREW LA GRECA, FORMER ST PATRICK'S CHOIRBOY So you're singing, the masses finish, everyone's still standing around just watching you sing and then everyone claps as soon as, as soon as the carol's finished. And it's, it's like playing a game of football and you score the winning goal and everyone's just clapping and cheering you on. It was a sense of achievement, a sense of gratitude.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Two of the boys left the rest of the group.

CROWN PROSECUTOR (ACTOR VOICE) Both boys took the opportunity to have some fun, to be naughty, mischievous kids. [They] slipped away from the procession once the procession was outside the cathedral and away from the public gaze. Once inside the cathedral, this is after mass, they then entered an unlocked door and walked down a corridor that led down to the sacristy.

ANDREW LA GRECA, FORMER ST PATRICK'S CHOIRBOY: It's a big church, there's lots of space, anyone can get lost. There's 60 kids and there was never ... if someone was missing, you wouldn't be able to tell because everyone will just hurry up, get changed, let's go home.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: The two boys were swigging from the altar wine when George Pell caught them in the act.

CROWN PROSECUTOR VOICED BY ACTOR: Pell asked the boys, "What are you doing here?" And told them that they were in trouble... Pell approached the two boys. He then proceeded to manoeuvre his robes so as to pull out his penis. He pulled the first boy aside and had him crouch in front of him. Pell was standing. At this time, the boy asked to be let go, as they hadn't done anything wrong. Pell had his hand on the back of the boy's head and his other hand at his own genital area. The other boy saw the first boy's head being lowered towards the genital area of Pell.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: When he'd finished with the first boy, George Pell moved on to the second.

CROWN PROSECUTOR (ACTOR VOICE): It's alleged that Pell was standing, and he pushed [the other boy] down to a position where he was crouching or kneeling. [The boy] was then pushed onto Pell's erect penis so that Pell's penis was, in his mouth. This act of fellatio or oral sex lasted for a short period which [the boy] estimates to be a couple of minutes. You will hear that Pell then stopped and told [the boy] to remove his pants. The boy stood upright and pulled down or dropped his pants and his underwear in accordance with the instruction. Pell then lowered his position so as to be almost crouched on his knees Pell then started touching the boy's genitalia. While touching [the boy's] genitalia, Pell was touching his own genitalia... After a couple of minutes, Pell finished and stood up.

ANDREW LA GRECA, FORMER ST PATRICK'S CHOIRBOY: They were the little boys.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: So to think that this happened to the little boys?

ANDREW LA GRECA, FORMER ST PATRICK'S CHOIRBOY: For it to happen to the little boys is just... They preach about god, they preach about love. Love thy neighbour. They took away lives. Took away innocence. That's not love. It questions your belief in a Church. It's like all your life you're brought up that the Church is God and love and all this. But if the Church is this, there's no love.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: What's your view about George Pell, what sort of person is he?

ANDREW LA GRECA, FORMER ST PATRICK'S CHOIRBOY: What type of per-? It's only a monster that can describe someone like that."

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: After the incident, the choirboys went home. One of them later told the court he didn't tell anyone.

CROWN PROSECUTOR (ACTOR VOICE): The boy didn't say anything at the time about what had happened because he didn't want to jeopardise his scholarship in any way. He was also cognisant of the position held by the accused man and the possible ramifications that might flow from saying something about what happened.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: About a month later, George Pell approached the second boy again in a back corridor of the cathedral.

CROWN PROSECUTOR (ACTOR VOICE): It's alleged that the accused man, Pell, pushed the boy against the wall. He then squeezed [the boy's] genitals over his robes before letting go and walking off.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: The events in the Cathedral would change the course of their lives. The identities of the two 13-year-old victims and their families can't be revealed. But the family of the first choirboy wants to tell his story.

FATHER: He went from being this lovely boy, who used to come to the football with me, who used to go and help his grandparents and helped around the house, to this boy, who didn't want, wanting to go out all the time. His whole being just, he was a different boy.

ANDREW LA GRECA, FORMER ST PATRICK'S CHOIRBOY: Just totally different. Just didn't care about anything. Didn't care about anyone. Just didn't even want to be, to breathe. Like you'd see him on the train, and it'd be like, 'how you goin'?' That's it. But deep down, you think, why are you rebelling so much? Like what is it that you hate? Like, you could sense that there was a bit of hate there for authority.

SISTER: Looking back, as a person, he changed. He did. He wasn't the same person as what he was beforehand. Yeah, yeah.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: And it changed so much that his life really kind of...

MOTHER: It spiralled. Yeah.

SISTER: Yeah.

MOTHER: It did spiral.

SISTER: Absolutely, absolutely.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Within a year of the abuse, their son began to use heroin.

FATHER: He started, yes, I noticed some bits of foil, that had been burnt. I noticed that. My parents noticed that - his grandparents.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: He was pretty young at this stage?

FATHER: Yes, yes he was.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: How old?

FATHER: Um, he would have been about 13-14 at the time. Yeah, yeah. Very young at the time. Very young.

MOTHER "It's devastating to watch your child like that, because of his drug use. It was very hard to watch."

FATHER: At 14, he would spend nights where we wouldn't see him. He would disappear for a day or two, and then turn up as though nothing had happened. His schooling, of course, became erratic. His attendance, he was at the point where the choir master, was going to expel him. It meant that he would lose his scholarship and we would then have to pay. And, uh, we didn't have the thousands of dollars that were required to keep him there.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: His mother suspected her son might have been abused.

MOTHER: I once asked him if he was, I can't exactly remember the words I used, whether he was touched up or played with. And he told me no, but again, with a shrug. Again, little niggling there, I never said anything to anybody. Little niggling. I'm thinking, 'yeah, alright'. He said 'no'. And then, a while after that, again, I asked him and again, he told me 'no'. And then I get this. And I was just so angry with him or not telling me. So angry. Sometimes I'm still very angry.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Their son died of a heroin overdose in 2014. He took his secret about George Pell to his grave.

MOTHER: I don't tell a lot of people how he passed away. I tell part of the truth, but not all of it because I don't want sympathy. I don't want the pity.

SISTER: It's very hard to explain to people that my brother struggled for half his life with a drug abuse problem. And it's very hard, you know, I have never told anybody. It's devastating because it helps to explain a lot of incidents in his life. Um, and yeah, it is, it's devastating. It is.

MOTHER: It's hard when you think a child can't come out and say, this has happened because most times they're not believed. I would like to think I would have believed, I would've believed my son.

SISTER: Yeah

MOTHER: I would have believed my son.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: "It must be a really hard thing as a dad to contemplate.

FATHER: It's the worst. It's the worst. I used to think when, when he died, I used to think 'what a waste of a life', you know? 31 years old and you're dead, what a waste of a life. Yep.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: The young man's death had a terrible impact on the other choirboy who was also abused by George Pell. After the funeral, the other boy finally told his own mother that he had been abused. She rang Bernard Barrett at the victim's group, Broken Rites.

BERNARD BARRETT, BROKEN RITES: I answered the phone and she explained that her son, who was a former choirboy, he was very upset because he'd had a troubled life since his teens, and he was telling her for the first time, at the age of thirty, about having been abused by a priest.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Later, Bernard Barrett spoke to the second choirboy.

BERNARD BARRETT, BROKEN RITES: He told me that when he was a choirboy at the Melbourne cathedral, uh, one day, he was sexually abused by a prominent person in one of the rooms of the Cathedral."

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Who was that prominent person?

BERNARD BARRETT, BROKEN RITES: "Well, he gave the name Archbishop Pell."

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: And that's how this investigation into Cardinal George Pell began.

DOUG SMITH, FORMER SERGEANT, TASKFORCE SANO: When you get a figure like that, he's the highest-ranked Catholic in Australia, he's in a high position in the Vatican. We obviously had to treat things very seriously in relation to how we conducted the investigation to make sure that all of the boxes were ticked as far as not letting information out. We had to be very secretive in relation to making sure that this wasn't put out into the public arena.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Doug Smith oversaw the investigation when it started.

You through your work with Taskforce SANO and Victoria Police had had a lot of experience dealing with these Catholic Church perpetrators - how did you find the Catholic Church in dealing with them in these cases?

DOUG SMITH, FORMER SERGEANT, TASKFORCE SANO They were very difficult to deal with. They would say that they wanted to cooperate with the police in relation to all of these allegations and they would be openly saying they would cooperate but I think you could almost say that the way they classed their cooperation would be similar to uh, a protestor lying on the ground on the middle of the street, not resisting the police, but the police would have to pick that person up and drag them off the street and I think that's the level of cooperation that the Catholic Church gave us.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: The police investigation into Pell widened. New claims were made about alleged abuse in the 1970s at the Eureka Stockade pool in George Pell's hometown of Ballarat. Damian Dignan was eight years old at the time. In 2015 he made a complaint to police...we spoke to him the following year.

DAMIAN DIGNAN (7:30, 2016) Father Pell was always at the deep end around his chest height there, and he would love to pick the kids up and throw them over his shoulder. Or throw them up in the air. So they could have a splash.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: So things got a bit rough? So what happened?

DAMIAN DIGNAN Ah, around the testes, around the anus.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: What would he do?

DAMIAN DIGNAN Grab you.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: How did it make you feel?

DAMIAN DIGNAN Scared. Scared but hurt. Very forceful around the anus.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Could there ever be an interpretation that it just so happened that his hands slipped down there, you know, by mistake?

DAMIAN DIGNAN Fair enough, one time it might have, but it got to a stage where every time he picked you up, it was there. And ah, not much fun, no. No. Get out of the pool.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Damian Dignan said he was terrified of Pell.

DAMIAN DIGNAN: Probably today, if I looked at him, I'd still be a scared little boy again. Don't get me wrong, I believe in the Catholic Church, I do. I believe in Jesus. I believe in God. That man is evil. And he should not be there. Should not be there, where he is. He's got a sickness.

DOUG SMITH FORMER SERGEANT, TASKFORCE SANO And he told us about another person that allegations that had happened against this other person.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: And that person was Lyndon Monument?

DOUG SMITH FORMER SERGEANT, TASKFORCE SANO: That's correct, yes, yep.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Lyndon Monument described playing the same game with George Pell in the pool.

LYNDON MONUMENT (7:30, 2016): Well it was his hand touching your genitals and stuff on the outside of your bathers or your shorts, and then that slowly became hand down the front of your pants or your bathers or whatever you call them.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Under the water?

LYNDON MONUMENT: Under the water.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Lyndon Monument told police that Pell would then invite him into the change rooms.

LYNDON MONUMENT: He'd undress and then he'd say to us to undress and so we'd undress and then he'd have a towel and he'd say 'make sure that you wiped under your testicles' and all that sort of stuff.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: And while he was doing this, was he wearing clothes?

LYNDON MONUMENT: No.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Ballarat local, Phil Nagle, said he also saw Pell in the change rooms.

PHIL NAGLE: Obviously, as kids, pretty discreetly in the corner because we didn't want anyone to see our doodles and we're still little kids. Uh, tapped me on the shoulder, look around and Cardinal Pell, stark naked, and he was actually had his towel up and he was drying his back and there was no discretion at all. So he's actually the first adult male I ever saw naked.

LYNDON MONUMENT I didn't like it, but because it was the Church and he was just, he was George Pell, we just weren't game to ever say anything, you know what I mean? So I just tried not to think about it to be honest.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Lyndon and Damian went to primary school at Ballarat's epicentre of abuse: St Alipius, where a ring of paedophile Christian Brothers and a priest abused dozens of children. George Pell lived in the St Alipius presbytery at the same time as the notorious child abuser, Father Gerald Ridsdale. Both Lyndon and Damian told police they were also abused by teachers at the school. Lyndon's brother was one of many St Alipius pupils who later suicided.

LYNDON MONUMENT: That's why I took to drugs, just to blank it all out. And then, still to this day, I know it sounds horrible and I would never hurt myself because I love my family and me kids, but I don't really like living. Like, I don't care if I get hit by a bus. But I'd never do anything to hurt my kids either, so I just keep battling.

DAMIAN DIGNAN: You've got no confidence, you can't talk, and you'll never talk. You feel ashamed. And ah, yeah, as far, as, you asked me how it affected me mentally? Ruined me life. Ruined it. For years, I was very angry. I grew up an angry young bloke. I took a lot of my anger out on myself. Self-destruction. And other people who cared about me and loved me.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Damian Dignan had a drinking problem and he developed leukaemia. Police laid charges in relation to his alleged abuse, but they were dropped when he died in January 2017. He was 47. He told me he was always proud of coming forward.

Six months after the Ballarat men went to police, another man came forward. Les Tyack told police that in the mid 1980s he saw Pell in the changerooms at the Torquay Life Saving Club.

LES TYACK When I walked in, I saw a fellow there towelling himself, criss-crossing across the back, towelling himself off. And there were three young kids, about eight to ten years of age, they would have been two metres across from him. Um, also getting changed. I went into the showers and I would've been been in the showers probably five to ten minutes. When I came out, this fellow, was facing the boys with the towel over his right shoulder. And I thought that to be a very odd situation. Here I was, in the shower, he had not got dressed, he was facing the boys and I thought then, immediately, there's something's not right here.

I said to the boys, 'if you're finished, off you go, we'll see you here again another time'. And I said, to this fellow, um, 'George, I know what you're up to. Get dressed, piss off and don't come back to this club again. If I see you back here, I'll call the police.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: And George was George Pell?

LES TYACK: George was George Pell.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: So, what you're saying is, you thought that George Pell was exposing himself to those boys."

LES TYACK: Absolutely. Absolutely. I have no doubt whatsoever.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Les Tyack was inspired to speak up when the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse began sitting.

LES TYACK: Pell's name kept on coming up. I felt that that was the time that maybe I should put my statement into the police as to what had happened. Because if they were forming some dossier on Pell, it might, it might be some sort of backup and just another example of what this man was up to. I had no, no beef. I was not a victim. I had nothing against the Catholic Church. But this was a situation that did disturb me greatly.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: In October 2016, Victoria Police made the decision to quietly fly to Rome to interview George Pell.

DOUG SMITH FORMER SERGEANT, TASKFORCE SANO: There would have been some level of secrecy that would have been required for that to happen. Three people went over there to interview and that obviously would have been with the cooperation of the Catholic Church um and George Pell would have agreed to the interview taking place.

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED (FROM POLICE INTERVIEW): Cardinal Pell. Do you agree the time is now 10.28 A.M. there on my watch?

GEORGE PELL: I do.

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: Thank-you, can you please state your full name and address?

GEORGE PELL: My name is George Pell and I live at number one, Piazza Della Citta Leonina in Rome.

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: Thank-you. Now Cardinal, today I intend to interview you in relation to the Victorian Australian offences of indecent assault upon a male and indecent act in the presence of a child under sixteen years. Before we continue, I must inform you that you do not have to say or do anything, but anything you say or do may be given in evidence. Do you understand that?

GEORGE PELL: I do.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: The Cardinal started his interview with a statement.

GEORGE PELL: I volunteered to take part in this interview because as I understand allegations made against me going back decades are made in vague and imprecisely defined circumstances and time frames so that it's practically impossible to demonstrate a negative unless I am given sufficient details to enable me to search the past and show them to be wrong. I have to rely on the law and my conscience, which say that I'm innocent. And I have to rely on the integrity of investigators not setting out to make a case, but actually searching for the truth."

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: We'll go into some specifics now.

GEORGE PELL: I hope you do.

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: On this occasion what's being alleged is that after mass on a particular Sunday in that time frame beep and beep were heading down the corridor and out towards the back towards the robing room that the choir utilised when they started poking around in various rooms they came across on their way through. As I said they were poking around, that was the term that was utilised.

GEORGE PELL: "Well that's an unfortunate term, but where we they they poking? What do you do when you're poking around."

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: I take it to be that they were looking as they were walking along...

GEORGE PELL: Go on

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: The next part of the allegation is that you've planted yourself in a spot between these two boys and the doorway of the sacristy room-

GEORGE PELL: After Sunday mass.

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: Yes, yes, and in an effect prevented them from leaving the room. Now the boys knew they were in a fair bit of trouble and that at that time you've moved your robes to one side and exposed your penis.

GEORGE PELL: Oh stop it.

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: Still at this stage standing with your back to the door.

GEORGE PELL: What a load of absolute and disgraceful rubbish. Completely false, madness. All sorts of people used to come to the sacristy to speak to the priest. The sacristans were around, the altar servers were around.

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: Mm-hmm.

GEORGE PELL: They should have been on their way to change their vestments.

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: Now yes, it's been alleged that you've stepped forward, grabbed beep by the back of his head and forced his head down onto your penis.

GEORGE PELL: In the sacristy after mass?

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: Yes, and ...

GEORGE PELL: Completely false.

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: This has gone on for a short period of time before you've let go of beep and grabbed beep head and done the same instance, forced his head down onto your penis. You don't ...

GEORGE PELL: Completely false.

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: You don't have to comment at this stage, I can continue on.

GEORGE PELL: Please do.

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: That's fine. The boys were terrified at this stage. And it's been described that holding, you were holding beep head at this time with two hands on the back of his head before stopping at which time you'vw stood back and beep was standing in the middle of the room beside him. It's been alleged that you then said, "Take off your pants." And you've stepped up to him, knelt down, started to fondle his penis and masturbate yourself at the same time.

GEORGE PELL: This is in the sacristy at the cathedral after Sunday mass?

DETECTIVE CHRIS REED: Yes.

GEORGE PELL: Well, need I say any more? What a load of garbage and falsehood and deranged falsehood.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: On June 29, 2017, Victoria Police made a historic announcement.

SHANE PATTON VICTORIA POLICE (JUNE 29 2017): Today Victoria Police have charged Cardinal George Pell with historical sexual assault offences. Cardinal Pell has been charged on summons and he is required to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates court on the 18th July 2017 for a filing hearing. The charges were served on Cardinal Pell's legal representative in Melbourne and they have been lodged also at the Melbourne Magistrates court. Cardinal Pell is facing multiple charges in respect to historic sexual offences and there are multiple complainants relating to those charges. I'm not in a position to take any further questions this morning and moving forward Victoria Police will not be making comments in respect of this matter.

GEORGE PELL, (29 JUNE 2017, ITALY): Good morning to you all. I just want to say 1 or 2 brief words about my situation. These matters have been under investigation for 2 years there have been leaks to the media There has been relentless character assassination and for more than a month claims on whether a decision to lay charges was imminent. I'm looking forward finally to having my day in court. I'm innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me.

VATICAN OFFICIAL: Thank you all very much for coming

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: George Pell flew back to Australia - so began a gruelling 20-month court drama. The case depended on the testimony of the sole surviving choirboy who'd been abused by Pell in the Cathedral. Andrew La Greca also gave evidence in the Pell court proceedings.

ANDREW LA GRECA, FORMER ST PATRICK'S CHOIRBOY: I was vigorously questioned, and I was a witness, so I could imagine how much, how strenuous the questioning would be, questioning every thought and every movement he did back then let alone the stress that he would be under.

And now it's coming back to haunt him. I could just imagine the stress and pain he went through. Just in that trial."

DOUG SMITH FORMER SERGEANT, TASKFORCE SANO: Even as a policeman who goes through court proceedings a lot, you feel uncomfortable because it's almost in a threatening way. It's threatening with words. It's questioning your truthfulness, it's questioning your character. And a policeman can walk away at the end of the day and think, 'oh that was difficult', but when it comes from, a complainant or a victim's point of view, it can be devastating for them to be called a liar.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: In May 2017, Pell was committed to trial by a Magistrate.The public remained entirely in the dark about what Pell was being tried for, how many complainants were involved and how many charges he faced. The cathedral trial was held entirely in secret. The Office of Public Prosecutions wanted to eliminate any argument by the defence that the Cardinal couldn't get a fair trial.

Pell went to trial in August last year, but that resulted in a hung jury. in December, in a retrial, the jury found George Pell guilty of all five charges against the two choirboys. They included one count of sexual penetration of a child and four of indecent acts with a child or in the presence of a child.

FATHER: He was in a position of trust. He was trusted and yet he does this sort of thing. And it's been, you know, been proven in court that he did. We have to say that. And myself, I'm just disgusted. I'm just disgusted in the Catholic Church.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: What does it say about the Catholic Church?

FATHER: It's let people down. It let my son down.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: It must be a huge mountain to climb for the police?

DOUG SMITH FORMER SERGEANT, TASKFORCE SANO: For sure. They've been nothing but professional. They've gone through some painstaking investigations, leading up to getting statements, putting everything together to support a conviction beyond reasonable doubt for someone like a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. I mean they've certainly done a fantastic job and they can certainly hold their heads up high.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: At the time of his conviction, Pell was facing a separate trial on the allegations of abuse at the Ballarat Pool. The news was suppressed so as not to taint the jury in the second trial. Last week, the Ballarat pool trial was abandoned because some key evidence was ruled inadmissible. As a result of that decision, finally, the veil of secrecy was lifted.

NEWS REPORTER: It can now be revealed that Australia's most senior Catholic Cardinal George Pell has been convicted of sexually abusing two choirboys in 1996 when he was Archbishop of Melbourne.

FRANCIS SULLIVAN, TRUTH JUSTICE AND HEALING COMMISSION: I was devastated. Cardinal George Pell has always been such a personification of the church in the public life of Australia, and to get to a point where he's convicted for these sorts of crimes, in a sense, is a conviction more broadly about the Catholic Church, its culture that has led to this.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Despite having brought the third most powerful Catholic in the world to justice, the man who was the 13-year-old choirboy just wants to be left alone.



VIVIAN WALLER, LAWYER: My client's had a very long journey. The criminal process has been quite stressful for him and it's not over yet. Like many survivors, my client has experienced depression, loneliness struggle with various issues over time. And one common feature that we often see in doing this kind of work is people feel that they have trusted somebody who they should have feared when they were a child and that it has long-term impacts on their relationships for the rest of their life, and it can be difficult for survivors to trust those people who are genuine and should be trusted. He feels that he trusted someone he should have feared.

DOUG SMITH FORMER SERGEANT, TASKFORCE SANO: He's a credit to himself and he needs to be congratulated because he's done a very, very good job at being believed. I mean, All you can do is tell the truth, he can't do any more than that. And for a jury of his peers to believe him, I mean, it's, it's fantastic.

ANDREW LA GRECA, FORMER ST PATRICK'S CHOIRBOY Just, he's, he's a hero. I think deep down, he wasn't just doing it for himself. Deep down he was doing it for someone else as well.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: That someone else who wasn't here?

ANDREW LA GRECA, FORMER ST PATRICK'S CHOIRBOY Yeah.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd described Pell's crimes as '...callous, brazen offending... He exploited two vulnerable boys and there was an element of force... There was an element of brutality to this assault. It was an attack.' George Pell maintains his innocence and is appealing. A 77-year-old man who once cast an enormous shadow over the Australian Church and culture is now in jail, awaiting sentence.

DOUG SMITH FORMER SERGEANT, TASKFORCE SANO: There's probably be millions of people out there who will look at it and think how important it is. That no-one's above the law. The Catholic Church isn't above the law. A lot of times the system doesn't work. But this time, the system has worked and there's going to be a lot of people who are going to benefit from that.