AUSTRALIA
The Age
May 19, 2015
Jane Lee
One of Australia’s most notorious paedophile priests, Gerald Ridsdale, will give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Allegations of Sexual Abuse during its first hearing in Ballarat.
The former Catholic priest and serial child sex offender will give evidence via video link from prison, where he is serving time for 30 offences committed against 14 children.
It is the first time a convicted perpetrator will publicly provide evidence to the royal commission in Victoria.
Ridsdale, 81, was part of a notorious paedophile ring involving the clergy that operated in Ballarat in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.
Seventeen male victims of child sexual abuse at Catholic-run schools in Victoria will also give evidence at the Ballarat hearing.
One survivor will tell the commission that of 33 boys in his 1974 grade four class at the now-closed St Alipius Boys’ School, 12 are believed to have taken their own lives.
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