AUSTRALIA
The Courier
By FIONA HENDERSON May 27, 2015
GERALD Ridsdale said he was molested twice as a child and “sexually tested” by an uncle while giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutionalised Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Ridsdale said he was assaulted by an older cousin when they shared a bed when he was eight or nine, and a Christian Brother a few years later.
He also gave evidence that priests had a great deal of community status, and he read a lot of spiritual books when he was growing up.
However he was told by an older priest friend: “Always remember when you’re reading books like that, that it’s not necessarily how people like that lived but that’s how they would have liked to live.”
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