Vile paedophile Gerald Ridsdale will give evidence at Royal Commission today
HE allegedly abused every boy in the school. Today, in a courtroom, Australia’s worst paedophile priest is making some stunning confessions.
IN his own words, Gerald Francis Ridsdale was “out of control”, and spoke of his desire to be removed from situations where he had evil urges to molest small children.
Ridsdale — Australia’s worst paedophile priest — told church investigators after his first conviction in 1994 that he “went haywire” in the Victorian town of Mortlake where he’s believed to have abused every boy in school.
Asked by a Catholic Church representative what happened he said: “I got out of control again. I went haywire there. Altar boys mainly.
“It was no secret around Mortlake eventually about me and my behaviour; there was talk all around the place among the children and one lot of parents came to me.”
Ridsdale has been convicted for abusing more than 50 children over 30 years, but the real figure may be in the hundreds.
He is giving evidence before the child sex abuse royal commission’s Ballarat inquiry on from his jail cell.
Ridsdale revealed. The evil paedophile is now 81. Has been in jail since 1993. #CARoyalCommission pic.twitter.com/nxW639zs2k
— Shannon Deery (@s_deery) May 27, 2015
In admissions being streamed live over the internet, Ridsdale has told the hearing he couldn’t control his sexual urges and was hoping to get “sexual instructions ” on how to relate to people from the church.
He said he’d always felt the need for intimacy and closeness. But the only intimacy he ever had with an adult came while he was in prison.
“I think I’ve always felt the need for closeness.”
He realised he was attracted to young boys not women while he was at Werribee seminary. Despite the realisation, he didn’t want to lose the “status” of being a priest.
Also while he was at the seminary he had a problem with masturbation and was told he needed to stop it “or leave” — but he says he couldn’t stop.
Ridsdale said he never told anyone about his sexual abuse of boys, even during confession, because the “overriding fear would have been losing the priesthood”.
Asked what he specifically didn’t confess he said: “The sexual offending against children.”
The 81-year-old was aware what he was doing was a crime.
Speaking matter of factly, Ridsdale couldn’t remember the names of his earliest victims but is relying on court documents.
Asked whether he selected his victims by deliberately targeting “poor families”, Ridsdale agreed.
“It’s obvious to me now that there was a pattern of seeing victims as being vulnerable ... but not always vulnerable,” he said.
He also agreed his usual method was to involve himself with multiple families with no father present and then use opportunities such as church camps and outings to abuse the children of those families.
He has told of “fondling and touching” young boys and once a complaint was made he was threatened to be shipped to the “missions”.
It was revealed during the hearing that Risdale was allowed to continue as a priest despite a bishop being aware of a complaint against him during his first year, the ABC reported.
The incident involved a boy in Ballarat.
“The first complaint that ever came in was in my first year as priest,” he told the inquiry.
“I remember going in a room and fondling him, and putting my hand down his trousers, it would have been a fairly brief kind of thing.”
Ridsdale said the bishop warned him that if it happened he would be sent “off to the missions”.
Instead he was sent to Mildura.
He later clarified saying “you’ll be off mission”, which he said he thought it meant he would be stripped of his priesthood
In another major development today, Cardinal George Pell has said he is prepared to give evidence at the Royal Commission in person if he has asked to, but so far he hasn’t been asked Sky News reported.
What the church knew about the abuse — and how it treated the news — has formed a major part of what the commission is investigating.
A series of letters and documents published on the sex abuse royal commission’s website reveal details of Ridsdale’s abuse and the response from the Catholic Church, including Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns.
Ridsdale has been convicted for abusing more than 50 children over three decades, dating back to his ordination in 1961.
After parents complained to then Ballarat Bishop James O’Collins about Ridsdale in 1961, O’Collins told him: “If this thing happens again then you’re off to the Missions” and sent him to Mildura. The royal commission was also told Bishop Mulkearns knew in 1975 that Ridsdale had abused boys — but did not act until 1988.
Among the other documents are a letter from Ridsdale to Bishop Mulkearns about stepping down from parish work in Horsham, 11 April, 1988: “I confirm my request to step down from parish work in this diocese so that I may be removed from the kind of work that has proved to be a temptation and a difficulty for me.”
In a letter to a victim in 1979, Ridsdale wrote as if they were lovers and told him some good would come from his abuse, the Herald Sun reported.
“I don’t know how much you know about me or how much you’ve guessed, but you’re the first person I’ve ever wanted to open up to. You’re the first kid I have been honest with and warned off (a bit late unfortunately, but I suppose all experiences bring some good out in us),” he wrote.
Bishop Mulkearns wrote to Ridsdale in November, 1988, after Ridsdale had faced a suspension from some duties for a year. Mulkearns noted Ridsdale had been doing some work helping isolated families but said it was not a good idea for him to celebrate reconciliation or baptism.
“With regard to the problems which have arisen, it could possibly be asked at a later date whether you continued to administer sacraments and it would be to be able to state that you had not been involved at this level with people.
“I hope I don’t sound too harsh in the above, but I feel that it is most important that we honour the undertakings which have been given and that we do nothing at this time which might rebound on us later.
“I have every hope that nothing more will eventuate, but we have to do our part to ensure that it does not.”
Ridsdale will not be asked about his offending, after being convicted in four separate court cases of abusing more than 50 children. But the royal commission and victims want to know who was responsible for moving Ridsdale from parish to parish, allowing him to continue to offend.
A victim, who was abused by other clergy in the Ballarat diocese, said victims wanted the truth made public about who essentially facilitated the abusers.
“We’d love to know how high it went up the tree as well and if those people are still in power now,” the victim told AAP.