User:Luciemm10

Lucie Morris-Marr (born May 1975) is a British-born investigative journalist and author. Based in Melbourne, Australia, she is most noted for being the first reporter in the world for breaking the highly shocking and controversial story that Cardinal George Pell, then the third most powerful figure in the Vatican and the prefect for the secretariat for the economy, was under a secret police probe for historical child abuse.

Pell controversy

Following the publication of her Pell scoop in February 2016 Morris-Marr notably clashed publicly with the high profile right-wing News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt, her colleague on the Herald Sun at the time over, over a published column he wrote that accused Morris-Marr of engaging in a unfair “witch hunt” against the senior cleric along with “elements of Victoria Police.” After making a formal internal complaint against the columnist questioning whether he was compromised The Herald Sun, owned by Rupert Murdoch owner did not renew her contract with the paper. Her severence by News Corp came as the reporter was under a police probe by the Independent Broadbased Commission due to media reports that she had gained her initial scoop from police sources. Morris-Marr learnt later that the IBAC probe had been dropped. After Pell was charged by police in July 2017 and made to face trial in Melbourne, Morris-Marr was hired by CNN and The New Daily to report the legal case. She followed the legal case through the courts, including the committal hearing, mistrial, retrial and subsequent appeal hearing in Melbourne just before her book on the matter was published.

Awards

In 2000 and 2001, while working as a staff reporter for the Daily Mail newspaper she was highly commended as a finalist as Young Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards in London. In 2006 she was awarded a NSW government award in Sydney, Australia for a long form crime feature while working as the Associate Editor of Marie Claire In 2020 she won the Walkley Book Award for her non-fiction book; Fallen - the inside story of the secret trial and conviction of Cardinal George Pell, published by Allen & Unwin in September 2019. In the judges comments they noted;

Personal life

Morris—Marr is married with two children, Nathaniel (born in 2008) and Talia (born in 2010) She is a dual British and Australia citizen and lives in the Bayside area of Melbourne.

Health

In November 2019 Morris-Marr was diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer at the age of 44. She immediately underwent aggressive surgery and chemotherapy, praising the treatment she recieved at Melbourne’s Cabrini Private Hospital in Malvern. She went onto share her story of survival and publicly advocate for the Australian Government to lower the age of screening to help saves. She backed a call by Bowel Cancer Australia to reduce the testing age to 45, but said she believed testing should be conducted from an even earlier age.