Cardinal George Pell dies aged 81 in Rome

Cardinal George Pell has died in Vatican City, aged 81.

Cardinal Pell, the former Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, died on Tuesday evening.

He was the Vatican’s top finance minister before he left in 2017 to stand trial in Australia for child abuse offences.

Cardinal Pell was in 2018 convicted of molesting two teenage choirboys in the sacristy at St Patrick’s Cathedral while he was Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.

Pell always maintained his innocence and his convictions were quashed in a unanimous decision by the High Court in 2020.

More to come