AUSTRALIA
The Standard
Adam Cooper
16 Aug 2017
Notorious paedophile priest Gerard Ridsdale has served enough time in prison, his Legal Aid defence lawyer says.
The claim comes despite Ridsdale admitting this week that he sexually abused 12 more children while a priest in regional Victoria.
The 83-year-old has now pleaded guilty over the course of five court cases to abusing 64 children.
He has been in jail since 1994, serving an effective total sentence of 28 years.
On Tuesday he pleaded guilty to 23 charges, including rape and buggery, for sexual assaults against 11 boys and a girl between 1962 and 1988 while he was a priest in Ballarat, Mildura, Horsham, Edenhope and other locations.
County Court judge Irene Lawson must now decide whether to add to Ridsdale’s existing sentence, under which his earliest possible release would be April 2019, when he will be eligible for parole. If he served his current full term he would be due for release in 2022.
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