The sentence of Cardinal Pell has, as expected, sent Australia’s media sewer rats scurrying from their dark infectious holes, crawling over each other to repeat Judge Kidd’s most inflammatory comments.

But it is all a farce.

For one thing, the inflammatory comments are based on a conviction vigorously disputed by appalled legal people around the world. What sort of a dodgy legal system does Australia have?

I wonder how Judge Kidd felt while he was uttering his comments, knowing that Cardinal Pell’s conviction rested on the most flimsy evidence, that he was sentencing an innocent man to jail, perhaps to die in jail, and he was giving support to Australia’s implacable religious and political bigots.

This most egregious miscarriage of justice has not finished by a long shot. Indeed, it is a major event in Australian history and will be examined ceaselessly.

When all the stakeholders are gone and balanced historians examine the evidence, the real scoundrels will appear to take their place in nation’s rogues gallery.