TWO of the three Victorian Supreme Court judges who presided over Cardinal George Pell’s first unsuccessful appeal had no expertise in criminal law.
One was a commercial lawyer while the other had worked as a Labor Party political staffer.
The only expert criminal lawyer appointed to Pell’s Victorian appeal was Justice Mark Weinberg who alone ruled in favour of the cardinal.
Victorian Court of Appeal president Chris Maxwell had worked for former Labor Foreign Minister Gareth Evans. He had also teamed up with the activist Green’s candidate Julian Burnside QC to challenge Australian border security measures.
Chief Justice Anne Ferguson is a former commercial litigator and has never practised as a barrister.
UNQUALIFIED
Their majority ruling kept the Catholic priest in solitary confinement for an additional 200 days before it was overturned by the High Court of Australia this month, releasing Pell from his maximum security imprisonment of 405 days.
According to a report in The Weekend Australian, Maxwell himself had earlier testified that he was unqualified in matters of criminal law and would often defer to others who had more expertise.
Justice Maxwell’s concession took place less than three years before he was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2005.
INNOCENT
He had earlier worked as a private secretary to former Labor Senator Gareth Evans. Maxwell had come to prominence when he teamed up with former Green’s candidate Julian Burnside QC to challenge the Howard Government’s border protection policies.
His joint judgement last August with Chief Justice Ferguson in Victoria was overturned on the grounds that there was “a significant possibility an innocent person had been convicted”.
The Victorian Court of Appeal had believed accusations of Pell’s accuser but the High Court ruled the unchallenged evidence of the defence witnesses was inconsistent with the accuser’s testimony and should have raised reasonable doubt.PC
MAIN IMAGE: Chief Justice Anne Ferguson (l) and Justice Chris Maxwell. (Courtesy Victorian Supreme Court).
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Those two corrupt judges should be sacked as that would happen in private business.
The Victorian Court of Appeal should be sacked as well, however, nothing surprises me what laborites get up to – downright disgraceful what Premier Andrews allows.