Ballarat Abuse Horror Doesn't Go Away

Daily Mail
May 14, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-3081052/Ballarat-abuse-horror-doesnt-away.html

It's the rollcall of names that decades on still haunts former St Alipius students: Ridsdale, Best, Dowlan, Fitzgerald, Farrell.

The school chaplain, principal and the entire teaching staff.

Five confirmed pedophiles, all at the Christian Brothers junior school in Ballarat East in the 1970s.

A St Alipius class photo from the time bears testament to the devastating toll their abuse wrought.

"Now a third of those are gone, they're dead," Ballarat Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA) manager Shireen Gunn said.

The unusually high level of suicides and premature deaths is the ongoing legacy of the abuse of children as young as five in the Ballarat diocese.

Peter Blenkiron, who was 11 when he was abused at the Brothers' other school in Ballarat, St Patrick's College, estimates there's been 10 suicides in the regional Victorian city in the past year alone.

"It wasn't a ripple effect that happened in Ballarat," Mr Blenkiron says.

"It was a f***ing atomic bomb that went off.

"It was Christian Brothers and priests who ignited an atomic bomb that went off and it's destroyed so many lives over the years."

Ballarat and Maitland-Newcastle in NSW have the misfortune of being among the worst dioceses in Australia for clergy sex abuse.

The Christian Brothers told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry it was "an accident of history" that St Alipius came to have its entire male teaching staff comprised of child sex offenders.

Victim Philip Nagle told the inquiry: "Ballarat's St Alipius Primary School in Victoria Street was certainly not the place to be if you were a Catholic boy going to school in the 1970s."

Brother Robert Charles Best was the principal and grade six teacher, Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale the school chaplain, Brother Edward Vernon Dowlan (who has since changed his name to Ted Bales) and later Brother Stephen Francis Farrell taught grade five and Brother Gerald Leo Fitzgerald had grade three.

The first four are all convicted pedophiles. The Christian Brothers admit Fitzgerald, who died in 1987, was also a pedophile.

When Ballarat detective Kevin Carson was investigating the crimes he initially came across 26 suicides, victims who were assaulted as boys by Best and Ridsdale.

That number then grew to 45, all from a five-year cohort of children, lawyer and Monash University doctoral researcher Judy Courtin said.

"It's only the tip of the iceberg," Ms Courtin said, after pointing to preliminary documentation of at least 13 suicides in two Melbourne parishes.

"A lot of these pedophiles were moved from parish to parish to parish. There's so much that's not known and so much that needs to be known."

The impact goes beyond Ballarat, into the whole of the western district of Victoria, Broken Rites spokesman Wayne Chamley said.

Ridsdale, one of those moved between parishes, is one of Australia's worst pedophiles.

Police investigating complaints against him believe there are many more victims than those who have come forward, Dr Chamley said.

"They estimated that Ridsdale had probably sexually abused at least 1000 children," he said.

"In a town like Mortlake it's thought that he sexually abused every child in the primary school."

He said the town of Mortlake imploded with suicides and family dislocation, so much so that the townspeople demolished the bluestone building where much of the abuse occurred, block by block.

"A number of those towns were very strongly religious, Irish background towns. They were totally let down by the Catholic Church."

Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Catholic Church's Truth Justice and Healing Council, said some of the most notorious church offenders committed horrendous crimes in Ballarat, destroying many young lives.

He said a public hearing of the abuse royal commission, beginning on Tuesday, was an important event for the city of Ballarat and its people.

"They have absolutely been let down by the church."

Mr Sullivan said the abuse had a profound impact on the community both in the past and in the present.

"It's too dismissive to talk about the past as if the past is over in the lives of people who have been abused.

"For many people the past is the present, it's their daily experience."

Dr Chamley said the royal commission process can empower victims.

"They just feel that they're being believed," he says.

"It's the highest form of interrogation that you can have. The powers of the royal commission have no limits."

A group of abuse survivors, now men in their 40s, 50s and 60s, who meet fortnightly through the Ballarat CASA are acutely aware the royal commission might be an intense trigger for them.

"It can be overwhelming and physically exhausting and they can be re-triggered in lots of ways," Ms Gunn said.

"While it can be very intense, for a lot of those guys it's been part of the healing process, to be able to stand up in public and tell their story about what happened to them.

"They know that by doing that, too, they're helping others that haven't come forward yet."

It is still a painful experience for Mr Blenkiron but he hopes that by appearing before the royal commission, as he did with Victoria's parliamentary inquiry, and speaking out, he can encourage others to get help.

Mr Blenkiron says his life fell apart but he's happy that after 12 years he no longer feels suicidal.

"Some cope better than others," he said.

"It never goes away."

He draws an analogy between his life and a broken vase, damaged so extensively that it will be impossible to glue back together.

"You can throw it out or make a mosaic.

"I'm just resigned to the fact that I've got to make a mosaic of the people who are left, try to restore and heal my being."

* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467. The Ballarat Centre Against Sexual Assault, which provides free and confidential counselling and support, can be contacted on (03) 5320 3933 or throughout Victoria on free call 1800 806 292 (24-hours).