A fascinating book about the George Pell case by a fairly controversial (right wing ?) historian Keith Windshuttle.

I'm finding it a gripping read as a case unfolds over a 10 year period of the build up by so many connected and disparate entities to nail a sacrificial lamb for the ills of the Catholic Church- Cardinal Pell who at the time, was the Number 3 Catholic in the world. A fuddy duddy, conservative fiend that fit the bill.

I could see so much of this happening at the time and wondered why others couldn't. Especially so many alleged liberal media types who pride themselves on their alleged "fairness" that just added to the pile-on and to a man and woman , are doing the same about the former Oz Attorney General Christian Porter (now subject to a defamation case).

A couple of things stood out for me which I'm haven't yet reached in the book, if they are indeed there;

The media went absolutely ape-shit when Cardinal Pell provided doctor's reports that his heart would not stand a flight from Rome to Australia to appear before a Royal Commission on child abuse but agreed to appear via video link.

The howls of the media were intense.."coward", running away" "hiding out in the Vatican" "he'll never come back" tweeted the former American born NSW Premier Kristina Keneally (now a powerful Senator who happens to belong to a rival Catholic faction to Pell..met her &like her ) and so on and all chorused approval of the "comedian' Tim Minchin's ugly, if not defamatory ditty about Pell, even screened on the national broadcaster.
Oh how they laughed.
(Karma struck when he went off to Hollywood hoping for a huge movie contract for his Matilda music and was taken in by LA shonks and it all ended in tears. There is a God ? )

But when police announced they were to travel to The Vatican to charge Pell with serious crimes which could have resulted in him being jailed for years- he received the cops and immediately jumped on a plane to return to his fate.
Not a frigging fucking word from his previous critics.

When the Oz "60 Minutes" ran a highly prejudicial tale about Pell they interviewed disgraced (love using that word) alleged "child abuse victim" (there was never a court case) Peter Saunders who called Pell a "psychopath". He'd never met the man and had no qualifications to make such a damning claim.

Every single Oz newspaper & TV station loved it and reported it extensively. Saunders was interviewed time and time again in Australia.

And of course when Saunders himself was accused of the rape of a vulnerable woman (not all victim are to be believed) the media came down like a ton of bricks.
Did they fuck?
Not a word. not a peep in the Australian media. It's a though he never existed.

Just some of the incremental steps that lead to Pell's eventual jailing. Of course thankfully we now know there is a huge silent majority who still believe in Justice.

## My Italian investigative journalist pall has read this book and liked it but says it doesn't touch on the real aspects: the Mafia's role and their allies within the Victorian Police (you saw the Underbelly series- it was no exaggeration )