Timeline of Cardinal George Pell’s career and accusations

Some events in Pell’s career and the criminal case:

July 16, 1996: Auxiliary Bishop George Pell is appointed Archbishop of Melbourne. He molests two choirboys that December inside St Patrick’s Cathedral, according to testimony from one of the victims.

26th March 2001: Pell becomes Archbishop of Sydney.

21st October 2003: Pope John Paul II makes Pell a cardinal.

25th February 2014: Pope Francis appoints Pell to the powerful position of Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.

8th April 2014: One of the molested choirboys dies of a heroin overdose without alleging the crime and having told his mother he had not been abused.

5th August 2014: Victoria state police establish Task Force Sano to investigate how religious and other non-government organisations handled abuse accusations.

18th June 2015: The surviving choirboy gives his first statement to Sano detectives outlining criminal allegations against Pell.

12th December 2015: Australian media report that Pell has cancelled an appearance before an Australian inquiry into how institutions responded to child sexual abuse. Pell said he could not fly back to Australia because of ill health.

23rd December 2015: Sano publicly appeals for information relating to allegations of sexual offences while Pell was Melbourne archbishop.

1st March 2016: Pell begins testifying by video link from Rome to the Australian child abuse…