AUSTRALIA
7 News
By Annette Blackwell
July 6, 2015
More Catholic clergy convicted of child sex abuse will be called to give evidence as a royal commission tries to find out why more allegations are made against that church than any other institution.
There was criticism of the commission after the appearance at a hearing in Ballarat of Gerald Ridsdale, the defrocked Catholic priest who is in jail for multiple child sex offences spanning 20 years.
After the May hearing Jesuit priest and human rights lawyer Frank Brennan asked what possessed judge Peter McClellan to put Ridsdale in the witness box, “where he provided absolutely no credible, probative evidence, simply further traumatising his victims”.
At the weekend Justice McClellan said the commission gave considerable thought to the decision.
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