LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian
September 27, 2019
By Naaman Zhou
Church reaches settlement with victim of one of Australia’s most notorious paedophile priests
The Catholic church will pay more than $1m to a victim of Gerald Ridsdale, one of the country’s most notorious paedophile priests, in a landmark settlement reached on Friday.
The man, who can only be identified by the pseudonym JCB, was raped by Ridsdale in April 1982. At the time, he was nine years old and Ridsdale was the parish priest at St Colman’s church in the town of Mortlake.
In February 2018, the man sued two former bishops in charge of the diocese of Ballarat, and later added the diocese as a defendant. On Friday, his lawyer revealed that the church had agreed to settle.
Ridsdale, who is currently in prison, has been convicted of multiple counts of sexual abuse of 65 children, over 40 years as his career as a priest.
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