(AUSTRALIA)
The Canberra Times [Canberra, Australia]
April 5, 2024
By William Ton, Australian Associated Press
Victorian pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale has been slapped with dozens of additional historical sexual assault charges against children.
Ridsdale is serving a maximum of 40 years in prison after previously pleading guilty to sexually abusing at least 72 children during the 1970s and 80s while working as a Catholic priest.
Sexual crime detectives on Friday issued the 89-year-old with a further 62 charges as they continue to investigate alleged historical sexual assaults involving six male victims.
The alleged offences include sexual penetration of a person aged between 10-16 years and indecent assault occurring in Inglewood in Victoria’s northwest and Mortlake in the west between 1973 and 1981.
Ridsdale has been in prison since 1994 for abusing dozens of child victims when he worked as a priest at multiple schools and churches across Victoria.
In 2022, he was charged with 24 sexual offences relating to two male victims in Mortlake in 1981 and 1982.
He suffered a fall in November 2022 and was bed-ridden, suffering chronic pain, muscle wasting and weak limbs and was recommended to be placed into palliative care in 2023.
If he serves out his full maximum sentence, Ridsdale will be at least 100 years old when he is released.
His previous offending largely took place in western Victoria where he spent most of his time as a priest after being ordained in 1961.
He also served in NSW and in New Mexico in the United States, where he underwent church-connected sex offender treatment.
Ridsdale will face Bendigo Magistrates Court on April 24.