AUSTRALIA
9 News
AAP
Gerald Francis Ridsdale says he did not tell anyone he had abused children when he was first ordained because he was afraid of being kicked out of the priesthood.
Ridsdale has told the child abuse royal commission that he did not confess all his sins during confession once he left the seminary, and told no one he was abusing children when he was ordained in 1961.
“I didn’t confess the sexual offending against children,” Ridsdale told the commission’s Ballarat hearing, via videolink from jail.
He did not tell the Ballarat bishop who ordained him that he had offended while in the seminary studying to be a priest and while overseas.
“I don’t think I told, would have told anyone at all,” Ridsdale said.
“I never told anyone. It’s the sort of thing I wouldn’t tell anyone.
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