Page:Pell v The Queen.pdf/25

Kiefel CJ

Bell J

Gageler J

Keane J

Nettle J

Gordon J

Edelman J

each occasion. Portelli recalled that, at the conclusion of the "meet and greet" on each occasion, he accompanied the applicant to the priests' sacristy and assisted him to remove his vestments. In examination-in-chief, the prosecutor had obtained Portelli's acknowledgement that he did not remember whether there was an internal or external procession on 15 and 22 December 1996. In re-examination, Portelli further acknowledged that he did not remember where he and the applicant went after leaving the Cathedral. Portelli's evidence of the fact and the length of the "meet and greet" on 15 and 22 December 1996, and of accompanying the applicant to the priests' sacristy thereafter on each occasion, was unchallenged.

62 Potter served as the Cathedral's sacristan for 38 years. He was aged 84 years at the date of the trial and he appears to have been suffering from some mental infirmity. At times, his recollection of events was apparently flawed.

63 Potter gave evidence that the west door of the Cathedral was closed during the Mass. It was Potter's responsibility to open it for the procession or to have "one of [his] men" do so. Potter recalled the applicant's practice of greeting congregants on the steps of the Cathedral following Sunday solemn Mass. He estimated that this might take 20 minutes or half an hour. Potter maintained that he had an actual recollection of the applicant standing on the front steps of the Cathedral in 1996 at the time he first started saying Mass as Archbishop of Melbourne. When asked if it was possible that the applicant had stayed on the steps for a shorter period of time, Potter responded, "[i]t depends what function he was attending afterwards". The evidence suggested that the applicant did not have functions to attend on the afternoons of 15 and 22 December 1996.

64 The prosecutor pressed Potter as to whether it was possible that the applicant had remained on the front steps speaking with congregants "for a very short period of time", to which Potter responded, "not the first time when he was the archbishop, it took him a while to adjust, and [he] stayed in there welcoming people for a couple of months in the cathedral". Potter agreed that it was possible that on occasions the applicant greeted congregants for a period of ten or 15 minutes rather than the 20 to 30 minutes that he had initially stated. He could not recall the applicant spending "just a short time" in this activity unless the weather was inclement. Potter disputed that on any occasion the applicant had returned to the sacristy unaccompanied; "[i]f Father Portelli wasn't there, he would let me know. I would go down and greet the Archbishop to bring him back in."

65 Daniel McGlone was an altar server at the Cathedral in 1996. He was able to recall only one occasion when he served at a Sunday solemn Mass celebrated