Ridsdale Can't Say Which Priest Saw Abuse

Daily Mail
May 28, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-3100318/Ridsdale-say-priest-saw-abuse.html

Pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale can't remember which priest may have walked in on him while he was sexually assaulting a girl, the royal commission has heard.

A judge last year said a girl believed another priest was present for a short time while Ridsdale was sexually assaulting her and must have been aware of the assault but did not intervene.

On Thursday, senior counsel assisting the child sex abuse royal commission, Gail Furness, asked Ridsdale who that priest was.

"I don't know because I've said I don't know who the other priests were there at the same time except George Pell," Ridsdale said.

"I have no idea of the priests who were there with me at Ballarat East."

Asked if he had a recollection of sexually assaulting the girl, Ridsdale said: "No, a lot of them I don't have, no."

The incident took place in Ridsdale's bedroom at the Ballarat East presbytery, where he lived in 1972-1973, after the girl went to look at his rock collection.

Ms Furness asked Ridsdale if he accepted that when he assaulted the girl there could well have been another priest in the presbytery.

Ridsdale said: "There could have been, yes. There probably would have been."

Ms Furness then asked if he accepted that another priest may well have been present for a short time while he was sexually assaulting her.

Ridsdale said: "Well, yes, yes."

Ridsdale has told the commission he can't remember who he lived with at the presbytery, where then-Father Pell was an assistant priest from 1973 to 1983.

"Well I said I didn't remember any of the priests who were there with me, but you tell me that George Pell was there at the same time, so I have to accept that, that George Pell was there, but I don't remember any of the others."

Ms Furness said Ridsdale first abused the girl when she was four, with the bedroom incident occurring when she was 10 or 11, which would make it around 1972 or 1973.

Ridsdale said his bedroom was like his office so he would have talked to a visiting priest in his bedroom.

Ms Furness said: "When you were sexually abusing a child in your bedroom, you wouldn't have another priest in there entertaining them in the front parlour, would you?"

Ridsdale said: "No."

Ridsdale on Wednesday said his barrister approached then-Bishop Pell to give evidence on his behalf at his first court appearance in 1993.

On Thursday, Ridsdale agreed he was the one who approached Bishop Pell to give evidence.

"Well it looks like I must have done that, yes," he said.

Asked if he told Bishop Pell the charges, he said: "Yes, he would have known that."

Ridsdale said he may have told Bishop Pell before being pressed further on that point.

"Yeah, well, that makes sense. But miss, I just can't remember," he told Ms Furness.

"What you're saying is making sense and it's logical, but I just don't remember."

Official records show that in 1972 there were three other priests living at the presbytery with Ridsdale: Monsignor W McMahon, Reverend A McInerney and Reverend W O'Connell.

In 1973 Ridsdale, then-Reverend Pell and Monsignor McMahon lived there.