Disgraced Cardinal George Pell will learn next week whether his final bid for freedom has been successful.
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The High Court will hand down its judgment in his case on Tuesday.
His lawyers have argued Victoria's Court of Appeal majority made an error in refusing the previous appeal bid last year, and that there was not enough evidence for a jury to convict him of the sexual abuse of two choirboys at Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral in 1996.
Pell was convicted by a jury in 2018 on the word of a single choirboy that he was sexually abused as a teenager by Australia's highest-ranking Catholic.
He is one year into a six-year jail sentence but has maintained his innocence since the start of the proceedings and his High Court appeal represents his last avenue of appeal over the Melbourne charges.
Australia's highest court has not yet granted the convicted pedophile permission to appeal his sentence.
Instead it heard that application and his appeal arguments simultaneously.
That means the decision of the full-bench of seven judges could go several ways.
A majority or all could refuse his appeal bid altogether, meaning Pell's conviction stands.
They could grant leave to appeal but refuse the appeal, which would also mean Pell's conviction stands.
His legal team will hope both are granted, and have asked that Pell's conviction be quashed entirely should his appeal be a success.
Justice Geoffrey Nettle hinted a re-hearing of the original appeal either by the High Court or by sending it back to Victoria's Court of Appeal was an option.
Meanwhile, more allegations about Pell during his time in Ballarat have been reported by the media.
Alleged victim Bernie told the ABC's Revelation program that he was abused on multiple occasions by Pell, then a priest in the diocese of Ballarat.
The allegations are separate to the cases in which Pell has been found guilty. Any additional allegations, including Bernie's, were either withdrawn, dismissed or dropped when a planned second trial of George Pell was abandoned by the Victorian DPP.
He was only been found guilty of the sexual abuse of two choirboys in Melbourne.
In 2018, a committal hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court heard several men allege they were sexually abused by Pell in Ballarat in the 1970s.
However, magistrate Belinda Wallington struck out some charges as it was deemed there was insufficient evidence for Pell to be convicted.
Pell was committed to stand trial on some charges that he sexually abused at least two boys in a Ballarat swimming pool in the 1970s. However, that trial was withdrawn, as prosecutors withdrew the charges.
Bernie's story will be aired on the ABC on Thursday night, where he will detail allegations revolving around incidents at St Patrick's Cathedral in Ballarat, as well as the YMCA pool.
- with Australian Associated Press
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