AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM
MARK COLVIN: A warning this report contains information you may find disturbing.
The convicted paedophile Gerald Ridsdale has told the royal commission he’s sorry Catholic Church officials didn’t report his behaviour to the police because it would have saved “so many” children.
The royal commission has heard that Ridsdale’s offending first came to the attention of a bishop in 1961 but he was left to assault possibly hundreds of victims over the next three decades.
The inquiry was told today one of Ridsdale’s victims believed that another priest saw him attacking her in the early 1970s but didn’t intervene.
Samantha Donovan reports.
SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Gerald Ridsdale’s victims live with the knowledge that if someone in the Catholic Church had reported him to police when his offending first became known, they would have been safe, something the convicted paedophile acknowledged at the royal commission today.
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