Cardinal George Pell allegedly exposed himself to three boys at Torquay change rooms. "I stand by what I've said, absolutely no doubt. There's no fabrication. It's as I saw it," he said. "I walked in on it, felt very uncomfortable ... it just concerned me." Mr Tyack said he walked in to the change room as Australia's highest-ranking Catholic, then a priest, was towelling himself dry a couple of metres from where the boys were getting dressed. He said he became concerned when he returned from a shower minutes later and found Cardinal Pell still naked, standing with the towel over his shoulder and facing the children, who were now dressed.

"I immediately thought this is not right, there is something amiss here," he told the ABC. "[It was a] very strange situation for an adult to be full-frontal to three young boys." Mr Tyack said he told the boys, aged eight to 10, to leave the change room before telling Cardinal Pell "I know what you're up to. Piss off. Get out of here" and threatening to call the police if he saw him at the club again. Cardinal Pell has emphatically denied all allegations of child sexual abuse against him, including those made in Wednesday's 7.30 program. The ABC reported that Mr Tyack took his concerns about Cardinal Pell to authorities last year. However, Fairfax Media has obtained a copy of a statement by Mr Tyack that shows he first reported the incident to police in Torquay in late 2012. Lyndon Monument has made sex abuse allegations against Cardinal Pell. Credit:Courtesy of ABC

The statement, which is consistent with his comments on Wednesday, was made prior to establishment of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2013. "I became immediately concerned because while being gone in the shower for five to 10 minutes, Pell still had not started to get dressed and did not appear as though he was going to," Mr Tyack said in the 2012 statement. "He was just standing there naked in full view of the three boys, still and staring at the boys. I didn't know what had happened while I was gone in the shower, but the boys were standing there looking at him. "I never told anyone about what happened that day with Pell. I always regret that I did not tell the other club members so that they were aware of what was going on. I thought initially it was a once-off of him exposing himself, but the more I hear over the years of the incidents involving victims of the church, the more this incident has played on my mind."

Mr Tyack said he hoped speaking out would be a catalyst for others to come forward. "It's all been about victims but I think it's about time other members of the public who've seen things come forward and give that information to the relevant authorities," he said. "The best form of defence is attack and I think that's basically what [Cardinal Pell's] doing. That's probably the thing that's activated me to say something, knowing that what he's saying is not accurate." The ABC also aired allegations by Lyndon Monument and Damian Dignan, two former students of St Alipius​ Primary school in Ballarat, who claimed Cardinal Pell molested them while playing in the Eureka swimming pool.

In January, police appealed to the public for information about alleged sex crimes at the Eureka pool in the late 1970s. Police said the victims were boys aged eight years old at the time of the alleged incidents, which occurred from 1977 to 1980. "Victoria Police is committed to investigating and bringing to justice those people who prey on children no matter how many years have passed," a police spokeswoman said in January. Loading Victoria Police chief commissioner Graham Ashton on Thursday confirmed Cardinal Pell was the subject of an investigation by the Sano Taskforce involving multiple allegations of child sex abuse going back decades. Email: beau.donelly@fairfaxmedia.com.au