Cardinal George Pell and other senior officials failed to exercise proper care for children in a Melbourne parish by not acting on information of sexual misconduct by a paedophile priest, according to final submissions to the royal commission into child abuse.

Key points: The royal commission hears George Pell and other senior officials failed to exercise proper care by not acting

The royal commission hears George Pell and other senior officials failed to exercise proper care by not acting Counsel assisting stated she believed the evidence of a number of witnesses

Counsel assisting stated she believed the evidence of a number of witnesses Counsel assisting also rejected Pell's evidence from Rome in February that he was deceived by officials from the Catholic Education Office

In her submissions to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, Counsel Assisting Gail Furness SC also stated she believed the evidence of a number of witnesses in the Ballarat and Melbourne dioceses instead of Cardinal Pell's in relation to the Cardinal being told by children and adults of inappropriate clerical conduct towards children in the 1970s and 1980s.

Counsel Assisting has found that Cardinal Pell, along with a number of other priestly consultors to Bishop Ronald Mulkearns of the Ballarat diocese, knew notorious serial paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale was being moved from parish to parish because he was sexually abusing children, despite the Cardinal's strong denials.

Allegations about Ridsdale's behaviour were never sent to police.

The report has been released less than a week after Victoria Police confirmed three of its Taskforce SANO detectives had flown to Rome to interview the Cardinal separately about historic child abuse allegations, which he has strongly denied.

The consultors meeting, where the submission says Cardinal Pell should have known, took place at the same time as some of the worst offending was committed by Ridsdale in the parish of Mortlake.

It was estimated by the nun who was school principal that he abused 20 of the 30 boys at the school.

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"It is submitted it was the common understanding of the [1982] meeting that complaints that Ridsdale had sexually abused children was the reason it became necessary to move him," she said in the submission.

"The conduct of any consultor who agreed to move Ridsdale, or indeed any priest, with knowledge of allegations of child sexual abuse made against them, is unacceptable."

Counsel Assisting has believed the evidence of survivor Tim Green, who was abused by Brother Edward Dowlan at St Patrick's College in Ballarat, that he told Cardinal Pell that Dowlan was "touching little boys" at Ballarat's Eureka Pool in 1974 and that the then-father Pell replied, "don't be so ridiculous", rejecting Cardinal Pell's submission that it did not take place, arguing that he may have forgotten it.

"It is submitted that the evidence establishes that between 1973 and 1975, Father Pell was told by at least one student and one or two priests about Dowlan's infractions of a sexual nature with minors," the final submissions say.

In the parish of Doveton, parish priest Peter Searson stayed for 12 years after student Julie Stewart first ran out of the confessional in tears to her principal having been abused by Searson.

He went on to physically and sexually abuse other children. A delegation of parents went to then-Auxiliary Bishop George Pell with a list of grievances about Peter Searson in 1989.

Counsel Assisting rejects claim of 'cover-ups'

Counsel Assisting rejected Cardinal Pell's evidence from Rome in February that he was deceived by officials from the Catholic Education Office — the Cardinal had said "this was a world of crimes and cover-ups".

"Cardinal Pell [and other bishops], as senior members of the Archdiocese and of the Curia and PAB personally received allegations of aberrant behaviour by Searson," barristers Gail Furness SC and Stephen Free said in their their final submissions.

"Notwithstanding the knowledge of these individuals, no action was taken to remove Searson until March 1997. "The matters known to Cardinal Pell on his own evidence (being the matters on the list of incidents and grievances and the 'non-specific' allegation of sexual misconduct) were sufficient that he ought reasonably have concluded that more serious action needed to be taken in relation to Searson."

Ms Furness said one option open to Bishop Pell was that Searson be "removed or suspended".

"At the very least a thorough investigation needed to be undertaken as to the veracity of the complaints, in particular the allegation of sexual misconduct. It appears that Cardinal Pell concluded that no such action was required because the teachers did not ask for Searson to be removed. "That was not a satisfactory response."

Cardinal Pell's submissions in reply to the Counsel Assisting set out a robust denial of the conclusions Ms Furness makes.

"The Commission could not be 'comfortably satisfied' that any of the allegations made against Cardinal Pell has been made out," Cardinal Pell's lawyers wrote in their submissions. "It is important that when one comes to judge conduct of someone in the 1970s, that judgment is undertaken in the context of states of mind which existed at that time and not by reference to the greater community appreciation which has formed in later years."

In relation to Ballarat, Cardinal Pell said in his submissions in reply there was not a "scintilla" of evidence that he knew of the allegations against Gerald Ridsdale, for instance, while a consultor to Bishop Ronald Mulkearns.