More Victims of "Epidemic of Abuse" Coming Forward
By Barney Zwartz
WHEN Ned Murphy (not his real name) was molested by three paedophiles at the notorious St Alipius school in Ballarat, he had plenty of company. ''Brother Fitzgerald molested just about everyone in the class,'' said Murphy yesterday. ''It happened every morning. We would read from 11.30 to 12, and he would make one boy each time sit on his knee down the back. ''He would grope you and fondle you and kiss you. He would pick randomly, and it was terrifying.'' Even more terrifying were the attentions of Brother Farrell and particularly the school's priest, Gerald Ridsdale, later jailed several times on numerous child abuse charges. Brother Farrell abused him while camping on a flat-bed truck, made the more frightening because it was pitch black, while Ridsdale made him undress when on an errand to the priest's office, fondled him and digitally raped him. ''I look at my first communion photo and Ridsdale is standing at the back smiling, and I wonder how many boys in that photo were fellow victims,'' Murphy said. In 1972, when Murphy joined grade 3, all the Christian Brothers teaching at St Alipius, plus Ridsdale, were child sex offenders. Robert Best, Stephen Farrell, Edward Dowlan and Ridsdale were all convicted, Brother Fitzgerald died before allegations were tested. Fifty former pupils have since killed themselves, all thought to be connected to abuse at the school. He said Best, principal at the time, ruled by terror. ''Apart from the sexual abuse, those men, apart from Farrell, were incredibly physically abusive.'' How such a despicable paedophile ring operated inside the church with impunity is one of the questions the parliamentary inquiry into the churches' handling of sex abuse may investigate, but Ned Murphy fears it has neither the scope nor the experience for the task. He is now one of 70 victims being represented by Melbourne lawyer Vivian Waller. Peter Blenkiron is a member of the Survivors, most of whose members were abused at St Alipius or St Patrick's College in Ballarat while the paedophile Brothers were there. He said that many victims were still battling daily suicidal thoughts and post-traumatic stress disorder. While heartened by the Victoria Police inquiry submission yesterday, which savaged church practices and attitudes, such news could ''necessarily'' re-open the wounds for many victims, Mr Blenkiron said. ''The Catholic Church says that the church of today is facing the truth of the past. The truth is that children who were raised in the Catholic Church are dying now as adults, because of molestations and rapes inflicted on them in the past. We need a support system put in place so these people can live and heal.'' Another victim, Noreen Wood, who suffered repeated abuse and is making a submission to the inquiry, said the police's recognition of the church's failures made her feel less alone. ''I feel the Catholic Church tentacles don't have quite the grip they used to,'' she said. Dr Waller also welcomed the police comments. ''We have been struggling with that for a long time. For Victoria Police to come out and confirm what we've known for a long time is very empowering for victims and for me as well,'' she said. Citing the church's own figures of the Melbourne Response settling more than 300 complaints, Dr Waller said: ''I know of no other community group, school, business, company, government agency or volunteer organisation who could preside over such astonishing and horrifying statistics and yet consider themselves to be above the law or somehow separate to it.'' She said the church could no longer see clergy sexual abuse as random criminal acts. ''It is an epidemic of abuse.''
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