Inquiry to Hear from Pedophile Priest

Sky News
May 26, 2015

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/2015/05/27/inquiry-to-hear-from-pedophile-priest.html


Victims are praying Australia's worst pedophile priest reveals the full story of what the Catholic Church knew about his offending.

Defrocked priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale will testify before the child sex abuse royal commission's Ballarat inquiry on Wednesday and Thursday, from his jail cell.

He will not be asked about his offending, after being convicted in four separate court cases of abusing more than 50 children.

But the royal commission and victims want to know who was responsible for moving Ridsdale from parish to parish, allowing him to continue to offend.

Andrew Collins, who was abused by other clergy in the Ballarat diocese, said victims wanted the truth made public about who essentially facilitated the abusers.

'We'd love to know how high it went up the tree as well and if those people are still in power now,' Mr Collins told AAP.

'I think it's very important that he does take the stand, but we're just hoping and praying that he does tell the truth and just opens the door and lets us know what actually went on.'

Ridsdale will be questioned about who he told about his offending, who spoke to him about complaints and what was done as a result.

Ridsdale, who will appear via videolink from Ararat Prison, will also be asked about what shaped him early in his religious life.

The royal commission's investigation into widespread abuse over decades in the Ballarat diocese has uncovered evidence that church figures knew of the offending in the early 1960s.

The parents of a boy Ridsdale abused in his first year after being ordained as a priest in 1961 complained to then Ballarat Bishop James O'Collins.

Ridsdale later told a Catholic Church Insurances investigator that Bishop O'Collins told him 'if this thing happens again then you're off to the missions'.

Senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC said there was evidence that a later Ballarat bishop, Ronald Mulkearns, knew in 1975 that Ridsdale had abused boys, but did not suspend his priestly faculties until 13 years later.

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