AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Danny Morgan
A Catholic priest has backed Cardinal George Pell’s recollections of a 1993 telephone call where he allegedly offered to buy the silence of a sexual abuse victim.
In the phone call, Cardinal Pell and the victim, David Ridsdale, discussed the fact that Mr Ridsdale had been sexually abused by his uncle, Father Gerald Ridsdale.
In May, Mr Ridsdale told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse the conversation ended acrimoniously after Cardinal Pell allegedly said: “I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet.”
Cardinal Pell denies ever trying to bribe Mr Ridsdale and rejected the suggestion the phone call ended acrimoniously.
Father John Walshe was living with Cardinal Pell in 1993.
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