When Victoria's Court of Appeal heard the case for Cardinal George Pell's acquittal last year, more than 42,000 people watched the proceedings live.
But when the High Court acquitted him of five charges of child sexual abuse on Tuesday, only a handful of people witnessed the proceedings.
Coronavirus, border lockdowns and social distancing laws meant only a handful of people were allowed inside the Brisbane courtroom where Chief Justice Susan Kiefel read the orders acquitting Cardinal Pell.
A couple more hovered outside the door to hear a decision that - global pandemic and unprecedented lockdowns aside - would normally have attracted a crowd of hundreds.
Just four weeks earlier, the public gallery of the High Court's main courtroom in Canberra was filled to the brim.
More than 30 reporters were there as the full bench of seven justices heard the case over two days while outside, photographers and camera crews captured Cardinal Pell supporters and opponents clashing.
On Tuesday, the streets outside the High Court in Brisbane were empty but for a gaggle of reporters and some passers-by who stopped to ask what the interest was.
There were no clashing crowds, no lawyers to speak as they departed court.
For those who couldn't be there, the outcome of one of Australia's most high-profile cases was revealed by the court itself.
A summary of the court's decision and a 26-page document outlining its reasons was posted on the High Court's website.
It became perhaps the first judgment in Australian history to be live tweeted.
Cardinal Pell was convicted of five charges of child sexual abuse by a jury in December 2018 after a trial held completely in secret.
Weeks later, when the convictions were publicly revealed for the first time, Cardinal Pell was faced with a clashing crowd of die-hard supporters and angry protesters.
Media from across the world surrounded him as he entered court, the last time he was a free man until he was driven from Victoria's Barwon Prison on Tuesday afternoon.
"There is a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted," the High Court said in its reasons.
With international and interstate media restricted from attending, it was a small local media pack that gathered outside the prison to witness and report on Cardinal Pell's release.
The cardinal released a written statement and didn't stop to speak as he was whisked from the prison to the Carmelite Monastery in Kew in east Melbourne.
"I hold no ill will to my accused, I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough," he said.
Australian Associated Press
