Royal commission returns to Ballarat child abuse and George Pell's response

By Melissa Davey
Guardian
December 6, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/07/royal-commission-returns-ballarat-child-abuse-george-pell-response

Australian Cardinal George Pell has told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse he will be available to give evidence from 16 December. Photo by Andreas Solaro

The second part of public hearings into child sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy within Ballarat institutions begins in Melbourne on Monday, culminating in evidence from Australia’s most senior Catholic and the Vatican’s secretary for the economy in Rome, George Pell.

The first part of the hearings was heard in Ballarat in May, when the commission heard allegations that Pell tried to bribe a child sex abuse victim, David Ridsdale, to keep quiet about his molestation at the hands of his uncle and then priest, Gerald Francis Ridsdale.

Gerald Ridsdale committed more than 130 offences against children as young as four between the 1960s and 1980s, including while working as a school chaplain at St Alipius boys’ school in Ballarat, the royal commission into institutional responses into child sexual abuse has previously heard. He is now in prison.

Pell, who supported Ridsdale during his first court appearance for child sex offences in 1993, has always denied knowing of any child abuse occurring in Ballarat while he worked there as a priest and with a clerical group called the College of Consultors during the 1970s and 1980s. Pell also spent time living with Gerald Ridsdale in 1973, but has said he had no idea he was a paedophile.

The commission has previously heard Pell was involved in a College of Consultors decision to move Risdale from the Mortlake parish in Ballarat to Sydney in 1982.

Evidence from the hearings has revealed priests and clergy staff accused of abusing children within the archdiocese of Melbourne were sometimes “dealt with” by the church by transferring them to other parishes.

Pell has previously denied having moved Gerald Ridsdale out of the parish, and said he would never condone any decision to move a priest if he knew he had abused children.

Stephen Woods, who was abused by Ridsdale and the convicted paedophile brother Robert Charles Best while a student at St Alipius primary school, has previously given evidence before the commission, and told Guardian Australia he would be watching Pell’s evidence closely.

“All the victims are wanting, and all we have ever wanted, is the truth, justice and transparency, from an organisation that calls itself representative of God,” he said.

“Unfortunately, reality then kicks in and we look at the amount of money that has been spent by the church defending themselves over the decades, and we are not left with much hope.”

Woods said he would be interested in evidence from Pell about Gerald Risdale’s transfer to another parish.

The second stage of the hearings was due to be held in Ballarat, but was moved to the larger Melbourne county court due a high level of public interest in Pell’s appearance.

The hearings are examining the response of the diocese of Ballarat and of other Catholic church authorities in the town to allegations of child sexual abuse against clergy or religious figures, and the response of Victoria police to such allegations.

Pell has previously appeared before the commission, but via video link from Rome.

He will be available to give evidence in person before the commission between 16 and 18 December.