Cardinal George Pell has called for an inquiry into the leaking of accusations that he is under police investigation over abuse allegations. A statement from the cardinal’s office in Rome called the accusations “without foundation and utterly false”. The cardinal “strongly denies any wrong-doing. If the police wish to question him, he will cooperate, as he has with each and every public inquiry,” it said. “The cardinal understands that several media outlets have received confidential information leaked by someone within the Victorian [state] police,” the statement said. “Given the serious nature of this conduct, the cardinal has called for a public inquiry to be conducted in relation to the actions of those elements of the Victorian police who are undermining the Royal Commission’s work,” it added. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is a government inquiry into Church, state and other institutions’ response to the sexual abuse of children. The cardinal also called on the state prime minister and police minister “to immediately investigate the leaking of these baseless allegations”. Victoria’s Herald Sun reported that “legal sources” told reporters that more than a dozen detectives had been investigating claims that the cardinal abused between five and 10 boys while a priest in Ballarat and as Archbishop of Melbourne. The statement from Cardinal Pell’s office said: “The timing of these leaks is clearly designed to do maximum damage to the cardinal and the Catholic Church and undermines the work of the Royal Commission.”