AUSTRALIA
The Australian
TESSA AKERMAN THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 26, 2015
The priest who accompanied pedophile Gerald Ridsdale to his sentencing hearing for child abuse says he didn’t know he had been charged with sex offences and “just took it that he needed help”, the Royal Commission has heard.
Father Adrian McInerney, the parish priest at St Alipius Parish in Ballarat East is giving evidence at the Ballarat hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
He told the commission this morning that in 1993 he accompanied Ridsdale to court after being asked to assist on a “minor matter”, and it was only once he was in court he found out that the priest had been convicted on sex offences.
“I know how it looks but I’m saying I did not know,” he said.
“Up until that time I have to confess that in certain areas I had some admiration for him because of his ability.
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