Ghost of abuse past brings horror to life for Corey Artz

It took 30 years for the dark ripples of child sexual abuse to build into a great wave that crashed over Corey Artz.

David Ridsdale at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse at Ballarat. Picture: Jake Nowakowski.

It took 30 years for the dark ripples of historical child sexual abuse in Ballarat to build into one great wave that crashed over Corey Artz in August when the 43-year-old Gold Coast car salesman tried to take his own life.

The father of three spent a week in Gold Coast University Hospital’s Melaleuca mental health ward processing a “full mental breakdown” caused by seeing and hearing the same child sexual abuse survivor across the nation’s media on what felt like a daily basis calling on the Catholic Church to be accountable for the crimes of Ballarat clergy members; the very same abuse survivor who sexually abused him as a 12-year-old in Ballarat.

“Ridsdale,” Mr Artz confessed to mental health professionals, whose thoughts leapt immediately to the well-documented crimes of Gerald Ridsdale, the notorious Ballarat priest who abused at least 54 children as young as four years old through the 1960s to 80s. “Nah,” Mr Artz gently clarified to anyone who asked.

“I mean David Ridsdale.”

David Ridsdale, 49, is the de facto spokesman for Bal­larat abuse survivors, a man who survived four years of abuse by his uncle Gerald and emerged, three decades later, as a flag-bearer for victims demanding the church and Cardinal George Pell be held ­accountable for the sins of the past. David Ridsdale has had Cardinal Pell in his crosshairs since 2002, when he accused the cardinal of attempting to bribe him in 1993 to stay quiet about the abuse by his uncle. “Every time I hopped in the car and flicked on the radio, switched on the TV at home, he was there,” Mr Artz said. “It all just got the ­better of me. Not a day goes by that it doesn’t click over in your mind and it makes it so much worse when this person’s face is thrown in front of your face every day.”

If you or someone you know is in need of crisis or suicide prevention support, please call Lifeline on­ 13 11 14 or visit www.lifeline.org.au