AUSTRALIA
The Courier
By Melissa Cunningham
Feb. 17, 2016
The first time he was sexually abused Dominic Ridsdale remembers counting the tiny holes on the vinyl roof of his uncle’s car.
“I just wanted to remove myself from what was happening,” he said.
His uncle disgraced paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale had taken him for a drive on the pretext of fixing the headlights on his car.
He was 12.
He remembers his uncle pulling the car over and getting out to check the headlights.
The shadow of Ridsdale was illuminated by the bright lights.
He could see his uncle, hands in pockets, staring at him through the windscreen.
It’s an image that still haunts him.
“A person’s hands are always large to look at for a child,” Dominic said. “But on this night, I felt like his hands reached from my neck to my knees.”
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