Former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns to Appear at Royal Commission in Melbourne

By Jane Lee
The Age
July 30, 2015

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/former-ballarat-bishop-ronald-mulkearns-to-appear-at-royal-commission-in-melbourne-20150730-gio1qh.html

Former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns outside court in Geelong on Wednesday. Photo: Alicia Thomas

A former bishop described as "pivotal" to the failure to prevent decades of widespread child sexual abuse at Catholic schools in Ballarat will appear before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission confirmed in a statement on Thursday that former Bishop Ronald Mulkearns was expected to appear at the second hearing, which will be held in Melbourne starting on November 23. Cardinal George Pell will also give evidence at the hearing, which will focus on authorities' role in child sexual abuse.

Ronald Mulkearns, the Bishop of Ballarat between 1971 and 1997, presided over many decisions to move disgraced serial paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale to numerous parishes despite knowing of allegations of child sexual abuse against him, the royal commission heard earlier this year.

Father Adrian McInerney, who was Bishop Mulkearns' secretary for five years during this period, described him as the "pivotal person" responsible for addressing child abuse. "In retrospect, he needed to remove people completely from ministry," he told the commission in May. Ten of Ridsdale's victims are suing Bishop Mulkearns in the Supreme Court, arguing that he failed to act on abuse claims.

Bishop Mulkearns did not front a state parliamentary inquiry into child abuse in 2013, citing ill health, and was not present at the first hearing into child abuse in Ballarat in May.

Cardinal Pell, then a Ballarat priest, was present in at least one of the meetings of Bishop Mulkearns' advisors where it was decided Ridsdale would be moved.

Bishop Mulkearns appeared at the Geelong Magistrates' Court on Wednesday as a witness in the committal hearing of priest Robert Claffey. He told the court he remembered Claffey "misbehaving ... in a sexual way". But he could not remember being approached by an alleged victim's father or Claffey admitting inappropriate behaviour.

Claffey, who has pleaded not guilty to one count of buggery, 14 counts of indecent assault and one count of committing an indecent act on a child under the age of 16, was committed to stand trial.

Cardinal Pell will give evidence at the hearing, following allegations he bribed one victim to stay silent about abuse at the hands of Ridsdale, and dismissed another's abuse claims, both of which he denies.

The hearing will be held in the County Court in Melbourne as the Ballarat Magistrates Court is unlikely to accommodate the large number of public spectators expected to attend.