An Australian man who accused Cardinal George Pell (pictured above) of sexually abusing him has denied he was bribed for his evidence, shooting down the latest conspiracy theory to hit the Vatican amid a corruption investigation into its shady finances.
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera has speculated in recent days that Vatican investigators were looking into whether Mr Pell's nemesis at the Vatican, ousted Cardinal Angelo Becciu, wired 700,000 euros (£635,000) in Vatican money to a bank account in Australia, and whether that money was tied to Pell's sex abuse trial.
Mr Pell, brought in by Pope Francis to bring accountability and transparency to the Vatican's opaque finances, was convicted but ultimately absolved by Australia's
High Court of allegations that he molested two choirboys at St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne while he was archbishop in the 1990s.
Corriere speculated that Mr Becciu might have "bought" the evidence of Mr Pell's accuser to get him out of the Vatican. Both cardinals were known to have clashed over the Australian's financial clean-up efforts at the Holy See.
The Corriere report had no sourcing, attribution or details and the report appeared more an effort to discredit Mr Becciu and distract attention from the shortcomings of the Vatican prosecutors' primary investigation into a London property venture.
Mr Becciu has strongly denied the allegations.
"In relation to what has been published by some organs of information, I categorically deny any interference in the trial of Cardinal Pell," he said in a statement released by his lawyer, Fabio Viglione.
Vivian Waller, a lawyer for the prosecution's key witness whose evidence led a jury to initially convict Mr Pell in 2018, said on Monday that her client had not been bribed.
"My client denies any knowledge or receipt of any payments," she said in a statement. "He won't be commenting further in response to these allegations."
Mr Pell was forced to take a leave of absence from his job as Pope Francis's economy minister in 2017 to return to Australia to face the charges and ultimately stand trial.
After Australia's High Court absolved him in April, he returned to Rome last week to clean out his Vatican apartment, but has said he intends to make his home in Sydney.
Australian prosecutors' star accuser, known in court as Witness J, first went to police with allegations against Mr Pell on June 18 2015 - 18 months after Francis appointed the cardinal as Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy and well before his friction with Mr Becciu reached crisis point.
Victoria Police were under pressure at the time to the bring church paedophiles to justice after a state inquiry and then a federal inquiry into institutional abuses of children exposed the extent to which clerics had perpetrated and enabled the molestation of children over decades.
Mr Pell's lawyers argue that Victoria Police set up a "Get Pell" operation at least a year before any complaint was received about him. His supporters say he became the fall guy for all the failings of the Australian Catholic Church, but never sexually abused anyone.
Victoria Police said on Monday they could not find any record that the Vatican had alleged witnesses against Mr Pell were bribed with Vatican money.
He said a week after his release from prison that he thought Witness J had been "used" by his enemies. He suggested his prosecution was linked to his corruption fight in the Vatican, but said he had no evidence of a link.
Vatican prosecutors have been investigating the secretariat of state's 350 million euro investment in a London real estate venture for over a year, but no indictments have been handed down.
Mr Becciu was involved in the initial investment, but his successor authorised payments of tens of millions of euros in fees to the middlemen most implicated in the money-losing venture.
He has denied any wrongdoing and he was fired last week by Francis over another scandal: allegations that he wired 100,000 euros in Vatican funds to a charity headed by his brother. He has also denied wrongdoing in that case.
