Rule of law 'was not extended' to George Pell.

The High Court's unanimous judgement quashing George Pell's child sexual assault conviction shows how "shoddy" work by both the police and the Victorian Court of Appeal was, according to Jesuit priest Father Frank Brennan. George Pell was convicted in 2018 of assaulting two boys in the 1990s, a decision that was upheld in the Victorian Court of Appeal in 2019. On Tuesday, however, the High Court overturned the Victorian Court of Appeal's decision ensuring Cardinal Pell could walk free after being incarcerated for 404 days. Father Brennan told Sky News whether you "like or loathe" Cardinal Pell, the rule of law must be applied consistently in Australia. "That's what the rule of law is all about," he said. "It's about living in a country where you can proudly say; it doesn't matter whether you are Cardinal Pell, it doesn't matter whether you are an Aboriginal person in outback Burke, whoever you are, that you get justice according to law. "We have breached that principle very fundamentally in this case until we got to the High Court of Australia. "So I say all praise to the highest court in the land and I think the behaviour of the senior judiciary, of the director of public prosecutions and of the deputy police commissioner of Victoria I think it's been absolutely below par."