Vic Justice Department opens investigation after George Pell prison letter posted to Twitter

Vic Justice Department opens investigation after George Pell prison letter posted to Twitter
Image: Image: Kerry Myers / licensed under Creative Commons 2.0.

An official investigation has been opened into how a prison cell letter by disgraced cardinal George Pell came to be shared on social media by a group of his supporters.

Prisoners in Victoria are not allowed to have access to the internet and it is an offence for them to commission other people to make social media posts on their behalf.

Yet the Twitter account “Cardinal George Pell Supporters” tweeted photographs yesterday of a two page letter by Pell that had apparently been written in Melbourne Assessment Prison.

In the letter Pell writes, “The knowledge that my small suffering can be used for good purposes through being joined to Jesus’ suffering gives me purpose and direction.”

The tweet suggests this is only the “latest” pastoral letter that Pell has passed to his supporters outside of prison.

The Twitter account’s bio states that it is for supporters of Cardinal George Pell, “wrongly convicted in Australia” and that it was created on 1 March this year.

As of this afternoon, the tweet had not yet been deleted.

Pell is awaiting a ruling by Victoria’s Court of Appeal. A jury found him guilty in December of four charges of an indecent act on a child under the age of 16, and one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16.

Pell had been an outspoken critic of the LGBTQI community in Australia for many years before being publicly accused of abusing underage males.

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