(AUSTRALIA)
Sydney Morning Herald [Sydney, New South Wales, Australia]
February 17, 2025
By Melissa Cunningham, Cameron Houston, and Alexander Darling
One of Australia’s most notorious paedophiles, Gerald Ridsdale, has died.
The 90-year-old disgraced Catholic priest had been in prison since 1994 for the sexual abuse of more than 70 children, which occurred during his three decades as a parish priest in western Victoria.
Ridsdale died after being unresponsive for days.
His death was met with relief by one of his many victims, Paul Levey, who told this masthead: “I have been waiting for this day for a long time.”
Levey was raped daily while living with Ridsdale at a presbytery in Mortlake, near Warrnambool, after being sent to live there at age 14 following his parents’ separation in 1982.
“He robbed me and so many others of our childhoods,” Levey said of Ridsdale.
“The abuse has affected every part of my life. He has caused so much pain to so many people, so I am glad he is gone, and I am glad he was locked up for so long before he died.”
It was revealed during the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that the Catholic Church knew as early as 1970 that Ridsdale was a danger to children. Yet the church kept moving him from parish to parish, where he abused many more boys and girls, until his first conviction in 1993.
Dr Judy Courtin, a lawyer and advocate for child abuse survivors, whose law firm has represented many of Ridsdale’s victims in court, said the pain he inflicted was impossible to quantify.
“The human damage caused by this one paedophile, and the Catholic hierarchy which enabled his sex offending to go unfettered for decades is so vast it is immeasurable,” Courtin said.
“The impacts on a child who was raped and or sexually assaulted by Ridsdale are, tragically, mostly life-long and many.
“We must also consider the impacts on the family members and loved ones of that child.”
Courtin said the fact no member of the Catholic hierarchy has ever been held criminally accountable for concealing and enabling Ridsdale’s child sex crimes beggars belief, and was a “permanent source of anguish and grievance for victims/survivors and their families and loved ones”.
She said many of Ridsdale’s survivors battled ongoing PTSD, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, poverty and chronic and devastating difficulties with interpersonal relationships. Others had taken their own lives.
Ridsdale admitted during evidence from prison to the royal commission in 2015 that he was out of control and “went haywire” in the town of Mortlake. The inquiry heard he was believed to have abused every boy aged between 10 and 16 at the local primary school.
Ridsdale was also one of five paedophiles at St Alipius boys’ school in Ballarat in the early 1970s.
Ridsdale had been in jail since 1994 and his jail term was repeatedly extended over the following years as he pleaded guilty to more crimes. After he pleaded guilty to more charges in 2023, a judge extended his overall time in jail to 40 years. Ridsdale was to become eligible for parole in 2027.
That August 2023 ruling was the eighth time he was sentenced for historic child sexual abuse.
Ridsdale was convicted of almost 200 offences against children, many occurring between the 1950s and late ’80s.
Ridsdale had been in poor health with a court hearing in 2020 he had high blood pressure, arthritis and undergone a heart bypass and bowel surgery.
If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or beyondblue 1300 224 636.