A television channel yesterday stood by its allegation that the Catholic archbishop of Sydney offered to buy the silence of a victim of sexual abuse in the early 1990s.
The 60 Minutes programme, which will be screened tomorrow night on Australia's Channel Nine network, claims Archbishop George Pell attempted to hush up the abuse of a family friend by a priest.
Archbishop Pell, who at the time was an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne, is alleged to have asked the man: 'What will it take to keep you quiet?'
The abuser, priest Gerald Ridsdale from Ballarat in Victoria, is serving a 15-year prison sentence for the assaults on the victim, his nephew David Ridsdale.
Archbishop Pell has vehemently denied the claims, which come in the wake of a similar but much wider scandal in the Catholic Church in the United States.
'I emphatically and totally deny the allegation that I made any attempt to buy David's silence. It was also alleged that I offered to buy David a house or a car. I emphatically and totally deny having made any such offer,' Archbishop Pell said.
The executive producer of 60 Minutes, John Westacott, dismissed Archbishop Pell's claims that he had been 'ambushed' by the programme, saying the churchman had been fully briefed on the allegations before being interviewed.