Notorious former priest Ridsdale sentenced to 11 more years in prison for child sex abuse

AAP - SBS Wires, SBS World News
August 31, 2017

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/08/31/notorious-former-priest-ridsdale-sentenced-11-more-years-prison-child-sex-abuse

Former Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale has been sentenced over further historical sex crimes.

Australia's worst pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale abused his position of trust offending over three decades, says a judge who added another five years to his overall jail term.

The former Catholic priest has been sentenced to 11 years' jail for abusing another dozen children, including a 10-year-old girl sexually assaulted on a church altar.

He has already served 23 years of a 28-year sentence for sexual offences against children in his care across western Victoria.

Victorian County Court Judge Irene Lawson said Ridsdale's appalling pattern of offending was quickly established following his ordination in 1961.

"Your actions were violent and abusive."

Judge Lawson said Ridsdale abused his position of trust over the victims and the trust of their families.

"You were a revered priest and trusted by devout Catholic families who respected you as God's representative on earth."

Ridsdale has now pleaded guilty in five court cases to abusing 65 children during his three decades as a parish priest in western Victoria, although his true number of victims is believed to be in the hundreds.

Judge Lawson sentenced Ridsdale to 11 years' jail after he pleaded guilty to 23 charges against 12 children committed over the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.