AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail
AAP
Pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale can’t remember which priest may have walked in on him while he was sexually assaulting a girl, the royal commission has heard.
A judge last year said a girl believed another priest was present for a short time while Ridsdale was sexually assaulting her and must have been aware of the assault but did not intervene.
On Thursday, senior counsel assisting the child sex abuse royal commission, Gail Furness, asked Ridsdale who that priest was.
“I don’t know because I’ve said I don’t know who the other priests were there at the same time except George Pell,” Ridsdale said.
“I have no idea of the priests who were there with me at Ballarat East.”
Asked if he had a recollection of sexually assaulting the girl, Ridsdale said: “No, a lot of them I don’t have, no.”
The incident took place in Ridsdale’s bedroom at the Ballarat East presbytery, where he lived in 1972-1973, after the girl went to look at his rock collection.
Ms Furness asked Ridsdale if he accepted that when he assaulted the girl there could well have been another priest in the presbytery.
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