Calls for Paedophile Priest Gerald Ridsdale to Face Child Sex Abuse Royal Commission

By Carly Crawford
The Australian
March 18, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/calls-for-paedophile-priest-gerald-ridsdale-to-face-child-sex-abuse-royal-commission/story-e6frg6n6-1226600162070

Gerald Ridsdale leaves the Melbourne Magistrates' Court in 2005.

ONE of Australia's worst paedophiles - Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale - could be freed in months.

And he is being urged to reveal how the church helped cover up his illegal activities.

The child sex offender, who molested at least 40 children over three decades, is eligible for parole in June.

His victims say he should give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

"If he started to talk about what he knew, the Catholic Church house of cards would come tumbling down," victim Stephen Woods said.

Evidence of a church cover-up emerged at Ridsdale's 1994 plea hearing. Witnesses explained how he was moved from one parish to another when claims of abuse were raised.

Ridsdale was one of the priests who preyed on children at Ballarat's St Alipius school.

The Herald Sun can reveal another of those men, Brother Edward Dowlan, is the subject of a police investigation into up to 12 more abuse complaints.

He was jailed for 6 1/2 years in 1996 for abusing 11 children, and is believed to be living in suburban Melbourne.

Court documents suggest Ridsdale has good prospects for parole because he has demonstrated remorse.

A final assessment will be presented to the Adult Parole Board in May when it meets to decide on Ridsdale's fate.

The board can impose special parole conditions on serious offenders, such as ordering them to live in designated housing and denying them unsupervised contact with children.

New laws that would empower the board to force certain parolees to wear electronic monitoring devices have not yet begun.

But Corrections Minister Andrew McIntosh expects they will be in force by June.

However, there are concerns a new GPS monitoring system -- promised by the Coalition before the 2010 election -- may not be in place in time.

"Corrections Victoria is currently undertaking a tender process for the procurement of electronic monitoring devices," a spokesman for the minister said.

Ridsdale received a maximum sentence of 25 years, meaning he could be kept behind bars until 2019.

The federal royal commission is expected to call for submissions soon.