Victorian Catholic priest charged with fresh child sex offences

By Shannon Deery
Herald Sun
January 9, 2017

https://goo.gl/2zi3zf

Gerald Ridsdale fronts the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse last year.

Gerald Ridsdale in 1994.

The 82-year-old is listed to front the Melbourne Magistrates Court next week where it is expected he will appear via video-link.

The Herald Sun understands Ridsdale has been charged with abusing a string of children while working as a priest in the Ballarat diocese.

He worked at parishes including Ballarat, Mortlake and Warrnambool.

The charges follow Ridsdale’s evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Ridsdale was one of a number of priests to testify at the Royal Commission.

The commission has referred hundreds of cases to authorities for further investigation and prosecution.

The hearing into the Ballarat diocese was heard over three sittings between May 2015 and March last year.

It included the testimony of Cardinal George Pell who was grilled for almost a week via videolink from Rome.

In November Christian Brother Robert Best admitted to abusing children over three decades.

The offending related to abuse of children during the 1960s, 70s and 80s in Ballarat, Box Hill and Geelong.