Paedophile Gerald Ridsdale tells abuse inquiry church repeatedly moved him

By Oliver Milman
Guardian
May 27, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/may/27/paedophile-gerald-ridsdale-tells-abuse-inquiry-church-repeatedly-moved-him

Ex-priest Gerald Ridsdale gives evidence from jail via videolink during the Ballarat hearings of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse. Photo by Royal Commission

The extent of the cover-up of child sex abuse by the Catholic church in Victoria has been outlined by convicted paedophile, who explained how senior clergy moved him around parishes and sent him for “relaxation exercises” when made aware of his offending.

Gerald Ridsdale, 81, gave evidence to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse via a video link from prison on Wednesday. He is serving time for more than 140 sexual offences against children as young as four-years-old, spanning three decades until the 1980s.

Ridsdale said that the Catholic leadership in the Ballarat area, where the hearing is being held, knew about his molestation of young boys soon after he was ordained in 1961.

However, rather than involving the police, the Catholic hierarchy sent Ridsdale to a succession of different towns in Victoria as an assistant priest, where he continued to abuse children.

After there was a complaint over him fondling a boy, Ridsdale said he was told by the local Bishop, James O’Collins, that “if this thing happens again you’ll be off to the missions and he sent me to Mildura.”

Following further offending, Ridsdale was sent to Swan Hill and then Warrnambool. He said he didn’t request these moves, adding “in those days there wasn’t a choice, there was no consultation, it was ‘you go’ and you went.”

Ridsdale’s offending didn’t stop so he was eventually sent to a church-appointed therapist who assigned “relaxation exercises” to him. This treatment lasted for just three sessions.

Ridsdale said he didn’t discuss his widespread sexual offences with anyone and wasn’t told the reasons for his new placements. Under questioning from Gail Furness, counsel assisting the royal commission, Ridsdale frequently said he did not recall details of his time as a priest, nor could be recollect conversations with high-ranking Catholic officials.

Quoting testimony Ridsdale gave the Catholic insurance investigator in 1994, Gail Furness said the priest was sent to Genoa in Italy and then onto Kent in the UK, where he spent time as a housemaster in a school.

Reading his own testimony, Ridsdale said one boy in Kent “was a bed wetter and one night I discovered he had wet the bed. I took him to my room, put him into fresh pyjamas. I’m pretty sure I fondled his penis, he would perhaps be 10.”

Ridsdale said he was himself molested three times when he was at school, once by an older cousin and then by an uncle. When he joined the seminary in Werribee he was told that masturbation was a sin.

Asked by Furness whether he he’d ever had a relationship with an adult, Ridsdale said: “Not really, except for a three year period in prison where I had a close relationship with a prisoner.”

Ridsdale repeatedly said he did not recall key details of his interaction with Catholic clergy as he was being moved around parishes in Victoria where he committed the sexual offences.

The former Catholic priest said he did not recall living with George Pell, Australia’s most senior cleric, nor why Pell agreed to appear in court as a character reference for him in 1994.

Ridsdale told the hearing, held in Ballarat, said that shortly after taking up a posting in Apollo Bay, he spoke to a man who “said they are saying things in the pub about you and kids so I thought it was time to get out, so I put in for a transfer.”

Despite being granted an early transfer, Ridsdale said he doesn’t remember speaking to any senior church officials about this or the reasons why he was allowed to move onto another parish.

The Ballarat area was the scene for numerous child sex offences committed by members of the Catholic church, some of whom were imprisoned. Pell, now a senior cleric in the Vatican, has agreed to appear at the hearing in person after being accused by an abuse survivor of attempting to buy his silence in the 1990s.

Judy Courtin, a lawyer and supporter of the abuse victims, said: “Ridsdale and his selective memory just isn’t credible. I just can’t believe it.

“He’s remembering acute details about certain events but at the same time he has no recollection at all about living with George Pell here in Ballarat, for example.

“When it comes to anyone in the hierarchy, he has no memory at all. It’s like the final kick in the guts for the survivors. He’s 81, he’ll probably die in prison, so what does he have to lose? Why doesn’t he fess up and tell the truth?”

Courtin said Pell shouldn’t be praised for offering to give evidence and that the former Archbishop of Sydney should’ve be in Ballarat already to support victims and their families.

Domenico Millivoj Micich, who was sexually assaulted as a child and is supporting other survivors, said: “This is a very traumatic experience for those who knew Ridsdale all these years.

“I thought he was still guarded and not really contrite. He can hide behind his age and say he can’t remember.”

Ridsdale will give evidence throughout Wednesday and Thursday.