AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail
‘I know how it looks… but I did not know’: Priest who agreed to be a character witness for ‘Australia’s worst paedophile priest’ now says he had no idea about his vile crimes
By JOHN CARNEY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
‘If someone could explain that to me now, I’d be a happier man.’
This was the weary response of the parish priest of St Alipius in Ballarat after he looked back on why he made the decision to be a character witness for predatory paedophile Gerald Ridsdale and accompany him to court in 1993.
Father Adrian McInerney was giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Ballarat on Tuesday.
ABC News reports that Father Adrian McInerney told the commission he agreed to accompany Ridsdale to court when he had to face child abuse charges, because Ridsdale told him the court appearance was only ‘a minor matter’ and that there was nothing to worry about.
‘I know how it looks… but I did not know,’ Father McInerney said.
‘But when you realised the horrendous crimes he’d been charged with, why didn’t you just turn around and walk away?” senior counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Father McInerney replied.
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