Alleged victims told the ABC’s 7.30 Report program Cardinal Pell abused children in locations across Victoria, including in Ballarat, Torquay and Melbourne.

The program revealed Victoria Police's Taskforce SANO had been examining allegations from complainants for more than a year, and was looking into incidents that allegedly happened during Cardinal Pell's time as Archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.

The program has obtained eight police statements from complainants, witnesses and family members who were helping the taskforce with its investigation.Clergy sexual abuse survivor Andrew Collins called for Cardinal Pell to immediately return to Australia to answer the allegations.  

"There can be no internal investigation by the church," he said. "It must be left to the police. Pending such an investigation the Pope should stand the Cardinal down even just as a sign of respect for victims."

If Cardinal Pell refuses to return, survivors will call for buildings named in his honour at the Australian Catholic University and St Patrick's College to be renamed, Mr Collins said.  

Cardinal Pell categorically denied the accusations. He described the claims as "totally untrue and utterly wrong".

It comes months after it was revealed on the eve of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing, Cardinal Pell was being investigated by Victoria Police for unsubstantiated allegations of abuse.

The Courier reported at the time he was being investigated by Victoria Police Sano Taskforce for committing multiple offences against children. In a statement, Cardinal Pell's office said he "emphatically and unequivocally rejects any allegations of sexual abuse against him", and accused the ABC of mounting a smear campaign against him.