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…