AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By court reporter Peta Carlyon
One of Australia’s most notorious child sex offenders, Gerald Ridsdale, was unable to control his sexual desires while in the seminary, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse in Ballarat has heard.
The elderly Ridsdale is giving evidence to the inquiry via video link from prison, where he is serving his latest sentence for abusing young boys.
Ridsdale was read out a long list of his offences over the years, involving many victims.
He told the royal commission he could not remember some of the offences.
He also told senior counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, he could no longer recall being abused himself as a child, despite making statements to that effect in the 1990s.
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