Nero’s Torches: A Metaphor for Justice in Victoria
The painting Nero’s Torches, by Henryk Siemiradzki (above), now hanging in the National Museum, Krakow, shows the Roman emperor watching the burning of Christians, whom he made a scapegoat for the burning of Rome in 46 AD, a crime Nero himself was suspected of committing. Could we find in this picture a metaphor for Cardinal George Pell’s treatment by the Victorian court system?
A recent article by Gavin Silbert QC, Victoria’s former Chief Crown Prosecutor, titled “Pell v The Queen” (Victorian Bar News, Issue 168), concerned the trials and appeals of George Pell. Silbert retired in March 2018 at about the time of Cardinal Pell’s committal hearing. His article was important because it was the first public comment by a person who appears to have played a role in the prosecution process of Cardinal Pell. The article provoked a letter of response in the next issue of the same journal by R.P. Dalton QC, Michael Waugh and J.X. Smith. Silbert responded to their letter in…
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