AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

A priest who warned a family to keep their children away from a pedophile priest says he deeply regrets not giving a broader warning.

Fr Eric Bryant has told an inquiry he heard through the grapevine about possible child abuse issues involving Gerald Francis Ridsdale.

“I began to hear and suspect that he had interfered with young people,” he told the child abuse royal commission.

He said around the same time a parent told him they were great friends with Ridsdale, who is now in jail for abusing 53 children.

“I remember taking him aside and warning him to keep the children away from Ridsdale,” Fr Bryant said.