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Pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale gets 11 more years in jail for child sex abuse
Nine News
August 31, 2017
http://www.9news.com.au/national/2017/08/31/11/02/gerald-ridsdale-sentenced-11-more-years-child-sex-abuse-priest
[with video]
Australia's worst pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale will spend almost 33 years in jail in total for his unprecedented offending spanning three decades.
The former Catholic priest was sentenced today after pleading guilty to abusing a further 12 children during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl on a church altar in Ballarat.
Judge Irene Lawson sentenced Ridsdale to 11 years with a non-parole period of eight years.
Ridsdale is already serving a 28-year sentence with a 25-year non-parole period.
Ridsdale told one ten-year-old victim she’d be a “good girl” if she did not tell anyone, and said “we could be forgiven”.
She was taken to him several times by her father between 1962 and 1988.
The 83-year-old’s earliest possible parole is 2022.
AUSTRALIA'S MOST PROLIFIC PEDOPHILE PRIEST GERALD FRANCIS RIDSDALE'S LIFE AND OFFENDING
1934 - Born May 20, St Arnaud, Victoria
Primary school St Aloysius, Redan
Secondary school St Patrick's College, Ballarat
1954-1958 - Studied for priesthood Corpus Christi College, Werribee. Began offending.
1958-1960 - Seminary, Collegio Brignole Sale, Genoa
1960-1961 - Seminary, All Hallows College, Dublin
1961 - July 25, ordained at St Patrick's Cathedral, Ballarat
- Fills in at five parishes including Horsham, Inglewood, Camperdown and Ballarat North
1962-1964 - Assistant priest at Ballarat North. First complaint from a boy at Villa Maria boarding school in Ballarat East
1964-1974 - Assistant priest Mildura, Swan Hill, Warrnambool and Ballarat East
1974-1975 - Parish priest Apollo Bay. Puts in for transfer after a man tells him in a pub there's talk about him and kids
1975 - Parish priest Inglewood. Panics and leaves overnight after a woman says there is talk he has been interfering with boys and police are making inquiries. Sent for counselling
Early 1976 - Temporarily appointed to Bungaree
1976-1979 - Administrator then parish priest Edenhope
1980 - Study leave, National Pastoral Institute. Offended there
1981-1982 - Parish priest Mortlake. Prolific offender
1982 - Starts on-and-off counselling
1982-1985 - Catholic Enquiry Centre, Sydney. Offends against boy from parish prayer group who became his altar boy. Centre director says "I want him out of here"
Early 1986 - Short periods as Woy Woy assistant priest and Forestville administrator, both in then Sydney archdiocese
July 1986-May 1988 - Assistant priest Horsham. Written complaint about offending while in Horsham
April 1988 - Steps down from parish work
June 1988 - Suspended for 12 months
1989-1990 - Residential program in New Mexico. Admitted to police he offended in US
Ridsdale says didn't offend from time he returned to Australia and his 1993 arrest
March/April 1991 - Assistant priest St John of God Hospital, Richmond, NSW
May 1993 - Admits indecently assaulting eight children. Sentenced to two years and three months.
November 1993 - Laicised
August 1994 - Admits abusing 20 boys and one girl from 1961-1982.
October 1994 - Jailed for 18 years
August 2006 - Sentenced to 13 years; admits abusing 10 boys from 1970-1987
April 2014 - Sentenced to eight years; admits abusing 11 boys, three girls from 1961-1980
December 2016 - Charged with 36 fresh historical sex abuse charges related to offences that allegedly took place in Ballarat, Ocean Grove, Merbein, Edenhope, Quantong, Mortlake and Riverside
March 2017 - Two further charges added
April 2017 - Ridsdale pleads guilty to 23 charges related the abuse of another 12 victims in Ballarat
August 2017 – Sentenced to a further 11 years for abuse of 12 victims
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