Paedophile priests: truth can now be told

The guilty verdicts will open the way for heavily redacted sections of the child abuse royal commission to be released.

Gerald Ridsdale pictured in 2015.

The George Pell guilty verdicts will open the way for heavily redacted sections of the child abuse royal commission to be released.

The federal government is ­expected to receive advice from prosecutors in Victoria to determine whether the redacted commentary and findings can now be released without prejudicing any other legal action.

Pell was heavily scrutinised by the commission over what he knew and when, and what he did to prevent offending by disgraced pedophile priests Peter Searson and Gerald Ridsdale.

The commission’s report into Searson is heavily blacked out in parts, but mentions Pell as having left the Ballarat diocese to be ­ordained as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. The appointment was as bishop for the southern region, which included Searson’s parish of Doveton, in Melbourne’s southeast.

Counsel assisting the royal commission argued Pell knew about Searson’s rampant offending but failed to act decisively. “It was incumbent on Cardinal Pell, having regard to his responsibilities as auxiliary bishop, including for the welfare of children in the parish, to take such action as he could to advocate that Searson be removed or suspended or, at least, that a thorough investigation be undertaken,’’ counsel told the commission. Royal commissions normally follow the general thrust of counsel assisting, but are not bound by their work.

Searson, even by the standards of Catholic offending, was weird. Pell had told the royal commission he was told about some of ­Searson’s behaviour in 1989 but that ­reports of his abusing animals and using the children’s toilets were not sufficient to act against him and it was not his respons­ibility.

Pell accused the Catholic Education Office of covering up Searson’s offending, which included carrying a gun at school, killing ­animals and showing children a body in a coffin.

“While the authority to remove Searson from his role as parish priest lay with the archbishop, Cardinal Pell had direct access to the archbishop, including through the Curia,’’ the submission said.

The submission argued Pell and others had failed the children of Doveton.

Searson died aged 86 in 2009 without facing child sex abuse charges. He was accused of multiple cases of sex abuse and was psychiatrically very ill, according to people who dealt with him.

He is also claimed to have tape-recorded some confessions, killed a cat by swinging it over a fence by its tail and stolen church money. Pell also faced scrutiny from the royal commission over what he knew, and when, about offending by the pedophile priest ­Ridsdale.

Pell denied to the commission that he knew why Ridsdale was moved around various parishes in the diocese of Ballarat, leaving a trail of destruction affecting hundreds of children.

Pell caused a furore when asked by the commission about Ridsdale’s offending. “It’s a sad story but it was not of much interest to me,’’ Pell said. “The suffering, of course, was real and I very much regret that, but I had no reason to turn my mind to the extent of the evils that Ridsdale had perpetrated.’’

Ridsdale, 84, has been convicted of dozens of sex crimes and has admitted to offending against hundreds of boys and girls.

He is expected to die in jail.