Pell defends handling of sexual misconduct case
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'No role in appointment': Cardinal Pell. (AAP: Paul Miller)
Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell has defended his handling of sexual misconduct allegations involving a senior Catholic priest.
Cardinal Pell says he referred sexual misconduct allegations against the priest, Father John Fleming, to the church's internal investigations unit.
Father Fleming, a former high profile Adelaide priest, was appointed to a top teaching job at a Catholic college in Sydney's west.
Father Fleming is now under police investigation over allegations he had sexual relations with a teenage girl in the 1970s, while with the Anglican church in Adelaide.
Father Fleming was ordained a Catholic priest in 1995 and appointed to head Campion College, a teaching facility at Toongabbie in Sydney in 2005.
The ABC understands that one of the victims wrote to Cardinal Pell after hearing that Father Fleming was moving to Sydney to take up the appointment.
A spokesman for Cardinal Pell has confirmed he wrote to the victim and told her to contact to police and then also referred the matter for internal investigation within the Catholic Church in South Australia.
The spokesman says Cardinal Pell played no role in appointing Father Fleming to Campion College, which is a privately-run facility.
