Priest Gerald Ridsdale Faces Packed Courtroom on Fresh Child-sex Charges

By Tammy Mills
The Courier
January 20, 2017

http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/4416054/priest-gerald-ridsdale-faces-packed-courtroom-on-fresh-child-sex-charges/?cs=7

Notorious priest Gerald Ridsdale has fronted a Melbourne court charged with historical sex offences against nine boys and two girls over a 20-year period.

The 82-year-old was charged on December 28 with 36 offences against 11 alleged victims from 1969 to 1989 when he was a priest in the Ballarat diocese.

The charges include anal rape of a girl and a boy under 14.

Police allege the offences occurred in Ballarat, Quantong, Mortlake, Ocean Grove, Edenhope, Apsley and Riverside, which is near Horsham.

Ridsdale appeared via videolink before a packed Melbourne Magistrates Court for a filing hearing on Friday.

Ridsdale, wearing a green jumper, said little in the short administration hearing except to confirm subsequent court dates with Magistrate Carolene Gwynn?.

He did not object to the release of charge sheets to the media.

"No, I've got no problems with that," he said.

Ridsdale was further remanded to face the Melbourne Magistrates Court again on March 10. A brief of evidence will be ready on January 27.

Victoria Police's Sano Taskforce charged Ridsdale after a number of alleged victims are understood to have come forward to Victoria Police in the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The taskforce was set up to probe allegations arising from the royal commission.

Ridsdale was ordained as a priest at St Patrick's Cathedral in Ballarat in 1961.

He went on to work as a priest at parishes in communities including Ballarat, Horsham, Edenhope, Mortlake, Inglewood and Warrnambool until the late 1980s.

Ridsdale was born at St Arnaud, in western Victoria, and grew up in Ballarat.

The royal commission is investigating how institutions including churches, schools, sports clubs and government organisations responded to allegations and instances of child sexual abuse.

Public hearings have been held across the country from 2013 and are ongoing.