Child Sex Abuse Survivor: "My Belief in Truth and Justice Has Taken a Beating"
By Melissa Davey
Stephen Woods, a survivor of horrendous sexual abuse at the hands of three religious figures within the Diocese of Ballarat when he was a schoolboy, says his belief in truth and justice has “taken an utter beating” over the past fortnight. Woods has sat and watched as most of the former priests working within the diocese between the 1970s and early 1990s told the royal commission into institutional responses into child sexual abuse that they could not recall information about being informed of the abuse by victims, their concerned parents, or church staff. They also gave evidence that they did not know the circumstances around known abusers being removed from parishes, often to other parishes where they continued to abuse. Woods was sexually abused by the notorious pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, who has been convicted of 138 offences against children, as well as by the then principal of St Alipius Primary School, Robert Charles Best, and the religious teacher Brother Ted Dowlan. Two of his brothers were also abused. He says he carries the memories and consequences of what happened to him with him every day. So it was painful for him to watch as the commission, armed with the testimony of dozens of survivors, and documentary evidence, questioned former diocese staff – only to have them so often respond with “I don’t recall”. “When confronted with incredible and damning evidence, so many of them showed no compassion … and no humility,” Woods says. “I still have a belief in truth and justice, but it has taken an utter beating in these rounds of hearings.” The commission is holding three rounds of public hearings into various institutions run by Catholic Church authorities in and around Ballarat, and the responses of those authorities to allegations of child sexual abuse. The first took place in Ballarat in May, where Woods was one of 17 survivors who gave evidence before the commission. The second round, which wrapped up at Melbourne’s county court on Friday, focused on what priests and senior religious figures in the diocese knew of these victims at the time. Even the usually imperturbable chair of the commission, Justice Peter McClellan, grew visibly frustrated with the former church staff giving evidence over the past fortnight. He challenged Brisbane’s auxiliary bishop Brian Finnigan, formerly a secretary and adviser to the former bishop of Ballarat, over his claims that he did not know the abuse was occurring. McClellan also refused a request from Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric Cardinal George Pell, who was due to fly in from Rome to give evidence before the commission last week, to instead appear via videolink. Days before his scheduled appearance, Pell’s lawyers told McClellan that Pell was too sick to fly. McClellan said the commission would wait until the third and final rounds of Ballarat hearings, in February, to hear from Pell, whom he hoped would by then be well enough to appear in person. But for now, videolink was not an option, McClellan said. Counsel assisting, Angus Stewart, also grew frustrated throughout the evidence. He accused a former housemate of Pell’s in Ballarat, Father John Walshe, of trying “to save your good friend Cardinal Pell” from allegations that he tried to bribe an abuse victim, David Ridsdale, the nephew of Gerald Ridsdale, to keep quiet. Walshe denied the claim. At the request of Pell, the commission recalled David Ridsdale, who had already given evidence about the abuse he had suffered before the commission’s first round of hearings in Ballarat, to appear for a second time so that he could face cross-examination from church lawyers. David Ridsdale flew in from London to do so, which he said made Pell’s announcement that he would no longer be appearing particularly galling. “Despite my psychological issues and my health issues in dealing with all of this, I was still able to make that flight,” David Ridsdale says. “A lot of survivors are saying he [Pell] will never come. I’m a glass-half-full man, so I’d like to think he will appear. But it’s very difficult, it seems that the evidence wasn’t going in the church’s favour, and that the collective truth of survivors was painting a damning picture.” He said he too was baffled by how many of the former priests and church staff who gave evidence failed to recall details of conversations they had about Gerald Ridsdale and other abusers, or what they did to address it. “Their lack of memory would suggest many people came to them about the abuse,” Ridsdale says. “Because if it was a one-off, you would never forget being told something like that. I have never seen McClellan so abrupt with witnesses, ever. I do believe he seemed to be totally and utterly disappointed with the way every priest or bishop who gave evidence seemed to remember a range of things, unless it had something to do with child abuse.” Had Pell appeared, he would no doubt have faced questioning regarding David Ridsdale’s claims that Pell had tried to bribe him to keep quiet about the abuse he was suffering at the hands of his uncle. Pell has previously denied having being involved in moving Gerald Ridsdale out of the parish to cover up the abuse. Pell also spent a short time living with Gerald Ridsdale in Ballarat, but says he had no idea he was abusing. Pell supported Gerald Ridsdale during his first court appearance for child sex offences in 1993, but 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. Leonie Sheedy, from the abuse survivor support group the Care Leavers Australia Network, said many members did not believe Pell would appear in person for the third round of Ballarat hearings next year. “A lot of our people feel he’s never going to come,” she said. Pell was also to be questioned on the Melbourne Response, the name for the internal methods the Catholic church used to investigate and address child sexual abuse occurring within its institutions. The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse was established by the government in 2013 to independently investigate how institutions like schools, churches, sports clubs and government organisations have responded to allegations and instances of child sexual abuse. In September last year, the commission requested an extra two years to complete its work due. The commission’s interim report revealed that by the end of 2015, it would likely have conducted up to 4,000 private sessions and 40 public hearings into institutions which have so far included the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Jewish Sydney and Melbourne Yeshivah centres, the Salvation Army, Swimming Australia, Scouts NSW, and government-run schools and juvenile detention facilities. The hearings into the diocese of Ballarat will resume in February.
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