The Daily Telegraph - 22.08.2019

Cardinal’s challenge

to child sex abuse

conviction fails

By Our Foreign Staff

CARDINAL GEORGE PELL, the for-

mer Vatican treasurer, will remain in

prison for at least another three years

after losing an appeal against his con-

viction for sexually abusing two

13-year-old choir boys, an Australian

court ruled yesterday.

Pell, the highest ranking Catholic to

be convicted of child sex offences, was

jailed for six years in March for abusing

the children at St Patrick’s Cathedral

while he was Archbishop of Melbourne

in the late Nineties.

Anne Ferguson, the Supreme Court

of Victoria Chief Justice, said two of the

three judges hearing Pell’s appeal “de-

cided that it was open to the jury to be

satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that

Cardinal Pell was guilty of the offences

charged” and rejected his appeal.

Pell will only be eligible for parole in

October 2022, when he will be 81.

“I am grateful for a legal system

where everybody is equal before the

law and no one is above the law,” one of

the boys, now in his 30s, said.

A spokesman for Pell said his legal

team was considering a final appeal to

the High Court of Australia.

Dershowitz: Duke must be like

me and fight sex claims in public

By Nick Allen in Washington

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, the high-profile
US lawyer who has denied allegations
against him by Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged
“sex slave,” said the Duke of York
should follow his example and defend
himself in public.
Both men have faced claims by Vir-
ginia Roberts Giuffre. Mr Dershowitz
embarked on an aggressive campaign
to refute them. The Duke has taken the
approach of releasing just two state-
ments through Buckingham Palace.
Mr Dershowitz told The Daily Tele-
graph: “I think there will be a lot of
pressure on him [the Duke]. I don’t
think he has any choice now.
“Now that this has resurfaced, he has
to categorically assert his innocence, if
he can do that, and if he can produce
evidence, he should do that as well.”
Mr Dershowitz was accused by Ms
Giuffre of having sex with her while he
was representing Epstein. He has de-
nied ever meeting her and publicly ac-

cused her of being a “liar”. Last month,

Ms Giuffre responded by launching a

defamation case against him for libel.

The lawyer said he had met the Duke

but never saw him in an “inappropriate

situation”.

Asked if the Duke should cooperate

with Epstein investigators, Mr Der-

showitz, who defended OJ Simpson

and Claus von Bulow, said everybody

had an “obligation to contribute to the

administration of justice” but it “really

depends what the facts are”.

Mr Dershowitz, 80, said he also met

Ghislaine Maxwell, who has denied

procuring young girls for Epstein,

about a “dozen” times.

The Wall Street financier took his

own life in a New York prison cell on

Aug 10, while awaiting charges of

under-age sex trafficking.

Ms Giuffre alleged in court docu-

ments that she had sex with the Duke

when she was 17. The allegations about

the Duke were struck from the court

record in 2015 after being described as

“immaterial and impertinent” by a

judge. The Duke has always denied the

allegations and any involvement.

The Duke was accused of flying from

New Jersey to the Virgin Islands with

Epstein, Ms Maxwell, and Ms Giuffre,

on April 11, 2001, in a private jet. The

Court Circular placed him in New York

on that date. He had no other engage-

ments until April 19 in South Korea.

The allegation was made in a court

deposition by pilot David Rodgers.

However, Buckingham Palace said

there were “a number of inconsisten-

cies” in the evidence, and that in some

cases the Duke had been on a different

continent when the pilot indicated he

was on Epstein’s jet.

Trump jilts Denmark after Greenland snub

By Ben Riley-Smith US EDITOR

DENMARK’S political leaders and
royal family yesterday expressed shock
after Donald Trump cancelled a state
visit to the country over its refusal to
consider selling Greenland.
Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime
minister, said she was “disappointed”
by the decision, while a spokesman for
the royal palace admitted it had been
taken by “surprise”.
Less diplomatic responses came
from former politicians and opposition
figures who said the US president’s

behaviour was “grotesque”, “smug”

and “disrespectful”.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the former

Danish prime minister, wrote on Twit-

ter: “Is this some sort of joke? Deeply

insulting.”

The outpouring of frustration came

after Mr Trump made clear that his in-

terest in buying Greenland, an autono-

mous country which is part of the

kingdom of Denmark, was not a joke.

On Monday, Mr Trump appeared to

play up the comic aspect of his consid-

erations, tweeting a picture of a vast

gold Trump hotel, writing: “I promise

not to do this to Greenland!” But on

Tuesday he said that due to the flat-out

rejection by Denmark he would be can-

celling a trip on Sept 2-3, planned after

an invitation by its royal family.

“Denmark is a very special country

with incredible people, but based on

Mette Frederiksen’s comments ... I will

be postponing our meeting scheduled

in two weeks for another time,” he

wrote. “The prime minister was able to

save a great deal of expense and effort

for both the US and Denmark by being

so direct. I thank her for that and look

forward to rescheduling sometime in

the future!” The remarks clearly indi-

cated that the refusal to consider sell-

ing Greenland, a country with a

population of 56,000 people, which is

mainly covered by an ice sheet, was to

blame for the cancellation.

Mr Trump had said over the week-

end that Greenland’s strategic benefits

• there is renewed geopolitical interest
  in the Arctic as its ice caps melt – and
  natural resources made it an alluring
  proposition.
  Defending the cancellation yester-
  day, Mr Trump suggested that the way
  in which Ms Frederikse had rejected

his proposal was to blame. “I thought

that the prime minister’s statement

that it was an ‘absurd’ idea was nasty,”

Mr Trump told reporters.

Ms Frederiksen, who earlier re-

sponded “Thankfully, the time where

you buy and sell other countries and

populations is over”, yesterday said: “It

is with regret and surprise that I re-

ceived the news that [he] has cancelled

his visit.”

She added that preparations for the

trip had been “well under way”, but

“this does not change the character of

our good relations”.

Rust in peace There are fears the wreck of

the Titanic could soon be lost forever after

divers making the first manned voyage to

the 3,800m-deep site in 14 years uncovered

a partial collapse of its hull. Salt corrosion

and metal-eating bacteria have taken their

toll on the liner, which sank in the Atlantic

in 1912 after hitting an iceberg. Even the

captain’s bath tub, seen above during an

earlier mission, has now gone.

ATLANTIC PRODUCTIONS /PA

World news

Donald Trump

has responded

to criticism of

his comment

that Jews who

vote Democrat

show “either a

total lack of

knowledge or

great disloyalty”.

Critics said he

was trading in

anti-Semitic

tropes. He

yesterday

denied the

comment was

racist, thanking

a commentator

who likened

him to the “king

of Israel”.

Jewish row US president

denies comment was racist

President drops

limit on time

child migrants

can be detained

By Ben Riley-Smith

DONALD TRUMP announced yester-
day he was scrapping a rule that limits
the detention of migrant families to 20
days while they await a decision on asy-
lum applications to America.
The White House said the current
agreement, the Flores Settlement, was
fueling the surge in families crossing
the US border and being exploited by
smugglers.
Mr Trump said in a statement: “To
protect these children from abuse, and
stop this illegal flow, we must close
these loopholes. This is an urgent
humanitarian necessity.”
The move is meant to come into
effect in 60 days but is likely to be
delayed by challenges in the courts.
Immigrant rights’ campaigners and
political opponents of Mr Trump said
the change would keep migrant fami-
lies detained in unsuitable facilities for
longer than is acceptable.
The Flores Settlement emerged from
a landmark court agreement in 1997
which dictates how child migrants can
be detained. It is widely interpreted as
setting a 20-day limit on detention.
Under Mr Trump’s proposal, that
limit would be removed, meaning that
migrant families would be detained in-
definitely until a decision on their
asylum case was made, which could be
months.
The White House announcement
called the Flores Settlement a “loop-
hole” which was being exploited by hu-
man smugglers to get young children
across the border.
It noted that less than 15,000 mi-
grant families crossed into America in
the 2013 fiscal year, but that the figure
for this fiscal year is already more than
430,000.

South African court rules flying

apartheid-era flag is act of ‘hate’

By Our Foreign Staff

A COURT yesterday barred the unjusti-
fied display of South Africa’s apartheid-
era national flag in a landmark ruling
that Afrikaans groups said they would
oppose.
Judge Phineas Mojapelo said in Jo-
hannesburg that flying the old blue,
white and orange flag for reasons other
than educational, artistic or other pur-
poses in the national interest amounted
to “hate speech” and “harassment”.
“It demonstrates a clear intention to
be hurtful, to be harmful and incite
harm and it in fact promotes and prop-
agates hatred against black people ... it
constitutes hate speech,” he said.
Those who breach the ruling may be
fined or given community service.
The decision came after the Nelson
Mandela Foundation Trust petitioned
the court over the public display of the
flag at a protest against the murders of
white farmers in 2017.
Sello Hatang, trust chief executive,
welcomed the ruling as a “building
block” for reconciliation.
The organisation said it “affirms our
rights not to suffer hate speech, our
rights to dignity and to a meaningful

freedom of speech”. AfriForum, a

largely Afrikaans lobby group that or-

ganised the 2017 protest where the flag

was displayed, and which opposed the

trust’s petition, said it would study the

text of the ruling before deciding on

further action.

Ernst Roets, of the group, said: “Our

concern with this case from the outset

has been that a judgment in favour of

the Nelson Mandela Foundation would

not serve the intended purpose, as

state regulation with regard to freedom

of speech in most instances results in

bigger problems.”

The old flag of South Africa was

flown from 1928 until 1994, when it was

replaced by the present design before

the first post-apartheid election.

Afrikaans groups say the flag is a part

of their national heritage. It is some-

times displayed by Right-wing groups

and at rugby matches.

‘It demonstrates a clear

intention to be hurtful, to be

harmful and incite harm

and promotes hatred’

‘He has to categorically

assert his innocence ...

If he can produce evidence,

he should do that’

The Daily Telegraph Thursday 22 August 2019 *** 13

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