AUSTRALIA
The Age
Adam Cooper
WARNING: This story contains content that may distress some readers.
A young girl was woken from her bed and driven by her own father to be left with paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale who then sexually abused her, a court has heard.
Ridsdale, arguably Australia’s most notorious paedophile priest with past convictions for assaults on more than 50 children, on Tuesday formally pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting another 12 children, including the girl, when he was a priest in Victoria.
He pleaded guilty to 23 charges, including two counts of rape and one of buggery.
Ridsdale told one altar boy the abuse was “part of God’s work”, the Victorian County Court heard.
A day after findings were handed down in the royal commission into child sexual abuse, Ridsdale, 83, used a walking frame to enter the County Court dock and kept his head bowed as more of his devastating offending was outlined.
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