AUSTRALIA
The Standard
By JARROD WOOLLEY May 29, 2015
PAEDOPHILE priest Gerald Ridsdale said if former Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns had gone to the police rather than try and rehabilitate him with counselling, his offending would have stopped because he would have been in prison.
Giving evidence for a second day at the child sex abuse royal commission in Ballarat, Australia’s worst paedophile priest said he was now sorry he wasn’t reported to police and believes he should never have been ordained.
Ridsdale also appeared to back track on evidence given on Wednesday, conceding he may have approached Cardinal George Pell to give character evidence at his 1993 court appearance.
Comment: Ridsdale the old, cold face of evil
He had previously said he believed that was arranged through his legal team.
It was also revealed yesterday Cardinal Pell was on a committee of parish consulters that met in 1982 where Bishop Mulkearns said it had become “necessary to remove” Ridsdale from his post as parish priest at Mortlake’s St Colman’s Church.
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