AUSTRALIA
The Standard
By MARY ALEXANDER May 28, 2013
CATHOLIC Cardinal George Pell regrets that his appearance at court with serial paedophile Gerald Ridsdale “provoked so much angst” with victims of clergy sexual abuse.
“At that stage nobody knew, at least I certainly didn’t, the extent of what proved to be an infamous career,” the former senior Ballarat diocese official told a state parliamentary inquiry yesterday.
In May 1993, Cardinal Pell accompanied Ridsdale to court in Melbourne, where he pleaded guilty to 30 charges of indecent assault, involving nine boys aged between 12 and 16. It was the first of three court appearances where Ridsdale faced a string of sexual abuse charges, many of them committed in south-west Victoria.
After being heavily criticised for supporting the former priest instead of his victims, Cardinal Pell said at the time Ridsdale “had made terrible mistakes”.
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