Pell arrives at monastery, Morrison comments

Cardinal George Pell has been released from prison after Australia's highest court cleared him of child sex crimes Tuesday.

Pell was driven out of Barwon Prison near Geelong and was taken to the Carmelite Monastery in the Melbourne suburb of Kew about two hours after the court's decision.

It's not yet clear what Pell's plans are.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has been dealing with the coronavirus crisis, told reporters in Canberra that the High Court's decision must "be respected."

Pell had said in a statement that his trial had not been a referendum on the Catholic Church's handling of the clergy abuse crisis.

Pope Francis' former finance minister had been the most senior Catholic found guilty of sexually abusing children and has spent 13 months in high-security prisons before seven High Court judges unanimously dismissed his convictions.

He released the statement before he was driven from the gates of Barwon Prison and past waiting media two hours after the verdict.

The High Court found there was reasonable doubt surrounding the testimony of the witness, now the father of a young family aged in his 30s, that Pell had abused him and another 13-year-old choirboy at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in the late 1990s.