Australia’s Victoria Court of Appeal on Friday refused to grant the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne leave to appeal an earlier decision concerning child sexual abuse allegations against the late Cardinal George Pell. 

In February 2022, RWQ (a pseudonym) filed a claim against the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, asserting mental harm and nervous shock as a result of being informed of the alleged sexual abuse of his late son by Cardinal George Pell. RWQ claimed that his son’s abuse took place between July and December 1996. He further alleged that the psychological impact of the abuse caused his son to start using illicit drugs from the age of 14 until his eventual death on 8 April 2014. RWQ claims relied on the common law and Part XI of the Wrongs Act 1958. 

The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne challenged the previous decision on the grounds that the Legal Identity of Defendants (Organisational Child Abuse) Act 2018 did not apply to RWQ’s claims as he was not subjected to the child abuse himself but rather was a ‘secondary victim’. The act prevents non-governmental organizations from successfully raising an ‘Ellis defence,’ which is based on a 2007 court case that was brought by abuse survivor John Ellis against the Catholic church. In that decision, the court held that church assets could not be targeted by child sexual abuse victims in pursuing compensation for the crimes endured within the church. However, the ‘Ellis defence’ was abolished in Victoria in 2018 following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The appeal concerned the proper construction of the act. The Victorian Court of Appeal held that the original judge’s construction was correct and that the Act applies to RWQ’s claims against the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne. The court reasoned that the phrase ‘a claim founded on or arising from child abuse’ includes RWQ’s claim and rejected the argument that the language precluded RWQ from filing suit over being informed of his son’s abuse.