"Cardinal Pell is obviously disappointed with the decision today," Pell's spokeswoman Katrina Lee said. "However his legal team will thoroughly examine the judgment in order to determine a special leave application to the High Court. While noting the 2-1 split decision, Cardinal Pell maintains his innocence. We thank his many supporters." If Pell applied to the High Court, it would decide whether or not to hear the case. In 2017-18, the High Court refused special leave for 430 cases and granted it for only 65. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video On Wednesday, Chief Justice Anne Ferguson announced she and Justice Chris Maxwell, the president of the Court of Appeal, had dismissed Pell's appeal.

Justice Mark Weinberg dissented. The court stayed largely silent as the decision was read out, but there were audible gasps from the public gallery. Pell, 78, who has spent about 170 days in prison, steadfastly maintains his innocence. His jail term of six years stands. He must serve three years and eight months before he is eligible for parole. The cardinal was the new archbishop of Melbourne when he abused two 13-year-old boys from St Kevin’s College. Pell orally raped one choirboy and sexually molested another in the St Patrick’s Cathedral sacristy in December 1996.

He molested one of the boys again in a corridor in the cathedral in February 1997. Both incidents took place after Sunday Mass and while Pell was wearing his archbishop’s robes. One of the choirboys died following a heroin overdose in 2014, having never disclosed the abuse. The prosecution’s case rested on the evidence of the surviving victim, who is now in his 30s and reported it to police in 2015. Loading Chief Justice Ferguson said Pell's surviving victim was a compelling witness, "clearly not a liar", "not a fantasist" and a witness of trust.

"Throughout his evidence the complainant came across as someone who was telling the truth," she said. After the decision was delivered, the surviving victim said the four-year long legal process had taken him "to places that in my darkest moments I feared I would not return from". "Some commentators have suggested that I reported to the police somehow for my own personal gain. Nothing could be further from the truth," he said, through his lawyer Dr Vivian Waller. He said he had never instructed his lawyer to seek compensation, nor did he wish to damage the church. "After attending the funeral of my childhood friend, the other choir boy, I felt a responsibility to come forward," he said.

"I knew that he had been in a dark place, I have been in a dark place. I gave a statement to the police because I was thinking of him and his family. I felt I should say what I saw and what had happened to me. "I had experienced something terrible as a child and I wanted some good to come of it. I would like to acknowledge my friend who passed away, the other choir boy." Pell, who appeared in court in a black suit and shirt and white clerical collar but looking ashen, looked directly at Chief Justice Ferguson as she began to read the decision. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Once it was announced, Pell hung his head and looked down when the ruling was read out. He sat in stony silence, with his left hand on the bench in front of him as he listened to a summary of the court's decision.

The majority of two judges decided that there was nothing about the complainant's evidence or the opportunity evidence that meant the jury must have had a doubt about the truth of the complainant's account, the chief judge said. Chief Justice Ferguson said she and Justice Maxwell ruled they did not experience a doubt. Sydney barrister Bret Walker, SC, led Pell’s appeal after taking over from high-profile Melbourne silk Robert Richter, QC. At the appeal hearing in June, Pell's lawyers outlined 13 points they said pointed to the jury's verdict being unreasonable, including arguments Pell was never left unattended while robed in the cathedral, that his practice of meeting parishioners after mass gave him an alibi, and that his heavy, cumbersome robes made the allegations physically impossible. But the majority of appeals judges rejected all 13. On the robes, the judges ruled the jury had the chance to examine the garments to assess their weight and manoeuvreability, and so it was "open to the jury to reject the contention of physical impossibility".

The appeals judges "found that the robes were capable of being manouevred in a way that might be described as being moved or pulled to one side or pulled apart", the chief justice said. WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT Pell – who was Vatican treasurer, a confidant of the Pope and the most senior Catholic figure in the world to be charged by police with child sex offences, was jailed for six years in March. The verdicts were the most sensational since the Catholic Church became engulfed in worldwide abuse scandals.

Pell leaving court on Wednesday morning. Credit:Jason South Pell was stripped of his position as the Vatican’s chief financial officer and expelled from Pope Francis’ inner circle of trusted cardinals known as the Group of Nine, or C-9, shortly after he was found guilty. Loading He remains a cardinal of the church. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who said his "sympathies are with victims of child sexual abuse not just today but every day" revealed it was likely Pell would be stripped of his Order of Australia honour.

"My understanding is that this [appeal loss] would result in the stripping of the honours that are decided externally to the government," Mr Morrison said. "That is a process that is done independently, and that course will now follow." Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The 13 reasons why (according to his lawyers) Pell should be freed Lawyers for Cardinal George Pell say there are 13 reasons his trial jury should have had reasonable doubt and not found the 77-year-old guilty of sexually assaulting two choirboys at St Patrick's Cathedral in the 1990s. The lawyers say the offences could not have occurred because: The timing of the assaults was impossible. The victim initially told police both attacks took place in 1996 but prosecutors told the jury the second incident happened in 1997. It was not possible for Pell to be in the sacristy a few minutes after mass when witnesses said they saw him go to the front of the cathedral to greet parishioners. It was not possible for Pell to be robed and alone in the sacristy, because church officials always ensured the then archbishop was never left unattended. It was not possible for the two choirboys to be sexually assaulted in the sacristy undetected. It was not possible for the boys to leave a procession outside without being noticed. Officials near the sacristy did not see either boy. It was not possible for the boys to be absent from the choir room, after the procession, without someone noting their absences. It was not possible for the boys to re-enter the choir room unnoticed. The crimes attributed to Pell are physically impossible because he wore heavy, cumbersome robes. The prosecution case that the second incident happened in 1997 was contrary to the victim's own evidence. No one noticed the second incident when the victim said he was attacked in a busy corridor. It was not possible for Pell to be in the corridor because he would have either been greeting parishioners or at the end of any internal procession. Other people present did not see anything consistent with the prosecution case.

The three appeal judges toured St Patrick’s Cathedral, read the transcripts from the trial, reviewed the exhibits and inspected the archbishop’s robes. They also watched a video of the victim's evidence. Pell's legal team also appealed against the verdicts on two legal grounds that could have meant the case was sent back to the County Court for a retrial. Pell was due to face another trial charged with molesting boys in a Ballarat swimming pool in the 1970s while he was a priest in the town. That trial was abandoned due to a lack of admissible evidence. The family of Pell’s deceased victim have said they are likely to sue the church or Pell individually for damages.