Most of the incidents related in the following stories occurred in the city of Ballarat, Australia, which has a population of about 86,000 souls and lies northwest of Melbourne.
UNDER the cover of clergy, Gerald Ridsdale was given the power to be a predator.
No occasion was too sacred. No location was out of bounds. No victim was out of reach. The more vulnerable the young children were, the more it pleased his depraved lust.
Parents were befriended and in a fooled sense of trust and put their children in the hands of Ridsdale.
There were fishing trips to Anglesea, lifts home after mass, beach excursions to Geelong and camping trips to the country.
Then there were the trappings at his presbytery. Video games, colour televisions, a video player and a pool table all luring his prey into his evil world.
As a priest, parents entrusted him to look after their children. He made the children initially feel special but all that was a saintly illusion.
"We were treated like God's garbage," a victim, Andrew, said.
RIDSDALE has just presided over a funeral for a man whose family he met in Apollo Bay. Just two days earlier, the man's daughter witnessed her father's death at their farm house.
At the gravesite, Ridsdale convinced the grieving widow to allow him to take her young son and daughter away to help them cope with their father's tragic death.
The children were fed dinner and then they became his latest victims. (Hours after burying their father and two days after the girl watched him die - how utterly unbelievable). It was in these secluded areas where he often exercised his domination.
This was 1975, but the list of young victims had already spanned many pages. Boys were abused during confession, after mass, at their parents' home, on weekend getaways and even after their Holy Communion.
Within weeks of taking his vows in 1961, Ridsdale started to sexually abuse boys.
The Catholic Church became aware of his abhorrent conduct in 1975 but a veil of secrecy shielded his offences becoming known. I would be very surprised if the church took 14 years to become aware that this man was a pedophile.
It was a policeman who came to see Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns about an incident that involved his son. The father was told Ridsdale would be pulled out and taken to get counselling.
The church hopped him around to different parishes across Victoria - more than seven - once complaints were made.
But it was not until 1988 that the man who became a molesting monster, abusing hundreds victims, was packed up and sent away to New Mexico in a bid to treat his deviant ways.
Victims were being offered $50,000 to keep quiet and protect the church's image. But as the complaints kept surfacing and more police action was being taken, Ridsdale was put on the Catholic Church's insurance blacklist of priests in 1999 it refused to indemnify because there was knowledge of his offending.
CARDINAL George Pell was as an assistant priest with Ridsdale in the 1970s at St Alipius Parish School in Ballarat's east and shared a house together.
But Pell has constantly denied knowing about any of Ridsdale's crooked ways. But when they did surface and Ridsdale faced a Melbourne court, Pell stood beside him dressed in garb.
Cardinal Pell now said the support in court he showed was a mistake because he was always on the side of victims. This is the third most powerful man in the Catholic Church!!!
Ridsdale's abuse knew no bounds and his own nephew was not immune. David Ridsdale said Cardinal Pell was the first person he went to for support but accused our top Catholic to "twist" his version of events.
"The idea that he was unaware of the scale of the problem is ridiculous," David told the Herald Sun. "He is a ladder climbing wannabe and I only wish the Catholic people of Melbourne who know so many truths about him had the courage to speak up."
THE perverted desires of Gerald Ridsdale have paved a painful and rocky road for his victims.
Decades on, many of his victims have taken their own life. Others are battling alcohol and drug addiction. Some victims are fighting their demons in silence and living as a recluse.
"You name it I've done it," Andrew said of his addictions. "Life is never normal from the time you get abused."
"He wrote to me once and I burned it. I had no interest in what he had to say." Like many others, Andrew was Ridsdale's altar boy. "He once abused me after Sunday mass while my parents were waiting for me in the car," he said.
There were other times when Andrew would be violated and Ridsdale would come and have dinner with the family after dropping the boy home. "He'd abuse me and then tell my mother what a great child I was," he said.
Ridsdale's privileged position made it difficult for the stories of young boys to be believed.
It was 1955 and Ridsdale, then a 21-year-old, and yet to be ordained. He befriended a family living in a Melbourne suburb and they offered to have him to stay one weekend.
A camping mattress was put in the bedroom of two brothers who slept on bunk beds. But Ridsdale decided to sleep with one boy the first night and the brother on the second night.
John, who Ridsdale slept with on the first night, could not believe it and now with the benefit of hindsight accepted he was lucky not to become one of the first victims. "It was so unusual and so unsightly," he said.
To the boys he abused, Ridsdale was manipulative and devious. John later became his altar boy and despite his mum finding Ridsdale in his bed and being "aghast" by the image, the father did not want to hear about it. "My Dad thought he was Christ," he said.
David Ridsdale said family members had to move their cars when Ridsdale arrived for a visit. "He was seen as someone more than human by his mother and she would go to great lengths in ensuring he was seen as something special in the family," he said.
POLICE in Victoria and New South Wales were taking statement after statement from victims, now adults but deeply traumatised by Ridsdale's actions.
Then it was time to come face to face with a man now described by the Ballarat diocese as "one the worst offenders in Australia's history".
Ridsdale never volunteered confessions to his crimes. The police who interviewed him were often given "no comment".
"When he was really pushed he would offer some information, but only what he had to," a senior detective involved in his cases said. "He answered the basics but never elaborated on anything."
Ridsdale has admitted 141 child sex abuse charges on 47 victims. But police say the official court documents only show a snippet - there are hundreds of victims.
Ridsdale walked his way into the County Court last week pushing a walking frame to face his latest charges.
His priestly outfit he once used to exert so much power was now replaced with a flannelette shirt, a jumper and pants.
His croaky voice wavered as he said "guilty" to each of the fresh 29 charges read out in court.
His face remained emotionless as the names of victims in each case were read out.
RIDSDALE'S name is nowhere to be seen at St Alipius Parish School of Ballarat.
He has been etched out of one of the school's darkest chapters. The risk of his name or photo being seen by any victim is too great.
School principal Eileen Rice said nothing could be done to heal the hurts of the past, but the school community stood in solidarity with the victims.
"In some ways we want to divorce ourselves from it but in other ways it is a reminder that vigilance is primary," she said.
"Gerald Ridsdale's name doesn't exist here. We do have some photos but they won't see the light of day."
The police that investigated Ridsdale for so long only found one factor in his favour. Despite playing the legal system and dragging on his cases, Ridsdale never put a victim in the stand to give evidence against him - he pleaded guilty each time sparring them to delve into one of their darkest days.
Ridsdale was due for parole this year but is now likely to die in jail, once sentenced next year.
"Goodness knows if it's the last list of victims," the senior policeman said. "He's a shocker. As far as offences, he is our worst. I hope it's a slow and painful death for him."
The above article was from the Herald Sun News, Melbourne AU, dated 29 November 2013.
Below is an update from the same source dated today, 18 March 2014.
Gerald Ridsdale, one of Australia's worst paedophile priests, told one of his victims ''it was the Lord's work'', a court has heard.
DISGRACED former priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale began sexually terrorising vulnerable children in his care almost as soon as he was ordained, the County Court has heard.
Ridsdale again fronted court today for a plea hearing after pleading guilty to abusing at least a dozen more children in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the children were abused in confession boxes or after Ridsdale had dressed them in altar boy robes.
Another victim said his belief that the Catholic Church hierarchy had known what Ridsdale and other priests were doing was reinforced by Cardinal George Pell's evidence to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse last year.
Cardinal Pell told the inquiry he had only recently discovered that former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns had destroyed documents relating to sexual abuse allegations. Bishop Mulkearns was responsible for shifting Ridsdale and several other priests around parishes after concerns were raised by families.
Cardinal Pell, who has been been appointed the Prefect for the Economy of the Holy See, one of the Vatican's most senior roles, responsible for reforming its administration and finances, lived with Ridsdale at a Ballarat presbytery in the early 1970s but said he was not a close friend.
Cardinal Pell admitted he made a mistake when he supported Ridsdale at his first court appearance on child sex offences in Melbourne in 1993, claiming he had ''little idea of the full extent and gravity of his crimes''.
Ridsdale, 79, appeared in the County Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to 30 charges involving sex offences against 11 boys and three girls between 1961 and 1980.
Wearing glasses and a woollen jumper, Ridsdale needed a walking frame to make his way into the dock and kept his head bowed during the plea hearing.
Crown prosecutor Susan Borg said that one of Ridsdale's victims had been a ward of the state at the Nazareth House orphanage in Ballarat when he preyed on her from 1962 to 1964, when she was aged 10 to 13.
On one occasion, Ridsdale wiped away the girl's tears after abusing her and told her what had happened was ''our little secret''. He told the girl he loved her and she was his special little girl before giving her a white bag of boiled lollies.
When the young girl decided to tell one of the nuns what Ridsdale was doing to her, she was told ''good little girls don't talk about such things - off you go''.
In her victim impact statement, the woman told the court that she had trusted Ridsdale because ''he represented God and all that was good''.
She had been convinced she was going to hell and felt evil, dirty, scared and confused because of Ridsdale's abuse. The plea hearing continues.
UNDER the cover of clergy, Gerald Ridsdale was given the power to be a predator.
No occasion was too sacred. No location was out of bounds. No victim was out of reach. The more vulnerable the young children were, the more it pleased his depraved lust.
Parents were befriended and in a fooled sense of trust and put their children in the hands of Ridsdale.
There were fishing trips to Anglesea, lifts home after mass, beach excursions to Geelong and camping trips to the country.
Then there were the trappings at his presbytery. Video games, colour televisions, a video player and a pool table all luring his prey into his evil world.
As a priest, parents entrusted him to look after their children. He made the children initially feel special but all that was a saintly illusion.
"We were treated like God's garbage," a victim, Andrew, said.
 |
| Ridsdale |
RIDSDALE has just presided over a funeral for a man whose family he met in Apollo Bay. Just two days earlier, the man's daughter witnessed her father's death at their farm house.
At the gravesite, Ridsdale convinced the grieving widow to allow him to take her young son and daughter away to help them cope with their father's tragic death.
The children were fed dinner and then they became his latest victims. (Hours after burying their father and two days after the girl watched him die - how utterly unbelievable). It was in these secluded areas where he often exercised his domination.
This was 1975, but the list of young victims had already spanned many pages. Boys were abused during confession, after mass, at their parents' home, on weekend getaways and even after their Holy Communion.
Within weeks of taking his vows in 1961, Ridsdale started to sexually abuse boys.
The Catholic Church became aware of his abhorrent conduct in 1975 but a veil of secrecy shielded his offences becoming known. I would be very surprised if the church took 14 years to become aware that this man was a pedophile.
It was a policeman who came to see Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns about an incident that involved his son. The father was told Ridsdale would be pulled out and taken to get counselling.
The church hopped him around to different parishes across Victoria - more than seven - once complaints were made.
But it was not until 1988 that the man who became a molesting monster, abusing hundreds victims, was packed up and sent away to New Mexico in a bid to treat his deviant ways.
Victims were being offered $50,000 to keep quiet and protect the church's image. But as the complaints kept surfacing and more police action was being taken, Ridsdale was put on the Catholic Church's insurance blacklist of priests in 1999 it refused to indemnify because there was knowledge of his offending.
 |
| Ridsdale in custody |
CARDINAL George Pell was as an assistant priest with Ridsdale in the 1970s at St Alipius Parish School in Ballarat's east and shared a house together.
But Pell has constantly denied knowing about any of Ridsdale's crooked ways. But when they did surface and Ridsdale faced a Melbourne court, Pell stood beside him dressed in garb.
Cardinal Pell now said the support in court he showed was a mistake because he was always on the side of victims. This is the third most powerful man in the Catholic Church!!!
Ridsdale's abuse knew no bounds and his own nephew was not immune. David Ridsdale said Cardinal Pell was the first person he went to for support but accused our top Catholic to "twist" his version of events.
"The idea that he was unaware of the scale of the problem is ridiculous," David told the Herald Sun. "He is a ladder climbing wannabe and I only wish the Catholic people of Melbourne who know so many truths about him had the courage to speak up."
THE perverted desires of Gerald Ridsdale have paved a painful and rocky road for his victims.
Decades on, many of his victims have taken their own life. Others are battling alcohol and drug addiction. Some victims are fighting their demons in silence and living as a recluse.
"You name it I've done it," Andrew said of his addictions. "Life is never normal from the time you get abused."
"He wrote to me once and I burned it. I had no interest in what he had to say." Like many others, Andrew was Ridsdale's altar boy. "He once abused me after Sunday mass while my parents were waiting for me in the car," he said.
There were other times when Andrew would be violated and Ridsdale would come and have dinner with the family after dropping the boy home. "He'd abuse me and then tell my mother what a great child I was," he said.
Ridsdale's privileged position made it difficult for the stories of young boys to be believed.
It was 1955 and Ridsdale, then a 21-year-old, and yet to be ordained. He befriended a family living in a Melbourne suburb and they offered to have him to stay one weekend.
A camping mattress was put in the bedroom of two brothers who slept on bunk beds. But Ridsdale decided to sleep with one boy the first night and the brother on the second night.
John, who Ridsdale slept with on the first night, could not believe it and now with the benefit of hindsight accepted he was lucky not to become one of the first victims. "It was so unusual and so unsightly," he said.
To the boys he abused, Ridsdale was manipulative and devious. John later became his altar boy and despite his mum finding Ridsdale in his bed and being "aghast" by the image, the father did not want to hear about it. "My Dad thought he was Christ," he said.
David Ridsdale said family members had to move their cars when Ridsdale arrived for a visit. "He was seen as someone more than human by his mother and she would go to great lengths in ensuring he was seen as something special in the family," he said.
 |
| St Alipius Parish School at Ballarat |
POLICE in Victoria and New South Wales were taking statement after statement from victims, now adults but deeply traumatised by Ridsdale's actions.
Then it was time to come face to face with a man now described by the Ballarat diocese as "one the worst offenders in Australia's history".
Ridsdale never volunteered confessions to his crimes. The police who interviewed him were often given "no comment".
"When he was really pushed he would offer some information, but only what he had to," a senior detective involved in his cases said. "He answered the basics but never elaborated on anything."
Ridsdale has admitted 141 child sex abuse charges on 47 victims. But police say the official court documents only show a snippet - there are hundreds of victims.
Ridsdale walked his way into the County Court last week pushing a walking frame to face his latest charges.
His priestly outfit he once used to exert so much power was now replaced with a flannelette shirt, a jumper and pants.
His croaky voice wavered as he said "guilty" to each of the fresh 29 charges read out in court.
His face remained emotionless as the names of victims in each case were read out.
RIDSDALE'S name is nowhere to be seen at St Alipius Parish School of Ballarat.
He has been etched out of one of the school's darkest chapters. The risk of his name or photo being seen by any victim is too great.
School principal Eileen Rice said nothing could be done to heal the hurts of the past, but the school community stood in solidarity with the victims.
"In some ways we want to divorce ourselves from it but in other ways it is a reminder that vigilance is primary," she said.
"Gerald Ridsdale's name doesn't exist here. We do have some photos but they won't see the light of day."
The police that investigated Ridsdale for so long only found one factor in his favour. Despite playing the legal system and dragging on his cases, Ridsdale never put a victim in the stand to give evidence against him - he pleaded guilty each time sparring them to delve into one of their darkest days.
Ridsdale was due for parole this year but is now likely to die in jail, once sentenced next year.
"Goodness knows if it's the last list of victims," the senior policeman said. "He's a shocker. As far as offences, he is our worst. I hope it's a slow and painful death for him."
The above article was from the Herald Sun News, Melbourne AU, dated 29 November 2013.
Below is an update from the same source dated today, 18 March 2014.
Gerald Ridsdale, one of Australia's worst paedophile priests, told one of his victims ''it was the Lord's work'', a court has heard.
DISGRACED former priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale began sexually terrorising vulnerable children in his care almost as soon as he was ordained, the County Court has heard.
Ridsdale again fronted court today for a plea hearing after pleading guilty to abusing at least a dozen more children in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the children were abused in confession boxes or after Ridsdale had dressed them in altar boy robes.
Another victim said his belief that the Catholic Church hierarchy had known what Ridsdale and other priests were doing was reinforced by Cardinal George Pell's evidence to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse last year.
 |
| Gerald Ridsdale (left) with George Pell |
Cardinal Pell told the inquiry he had only recently discovered that former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns had destroyed documents relating to sexual abuse allegations. Bishop Mulkearns was responsible for shifting Ridsdale and several other priests around parishes after concerns were raised by families.
Cardinal Pell, who has been been appointed the Prefect for the Economy of the Holy See, one of the Vatican's most senior roles, responsible for reforming its administration and finances, lived with Ridsdale at a Ballarat presbytery in the early 1970s but said he was not a close friend.
Cardinal Pell admitted he made a mistake when he supported Ridsdale at his first court appearance on child sex offences in Melbourne in 1993, claiming he had ''little idea of the full extent and gravity of his crimes''.
Ridsdale, 79, appeared in the County Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to 30 charges involving sex offences against 11 boys and three girls between 1961 and 1980.
Wearing glasses and a woollen jumper, Ridsdale needed a walking frame to make his way into the dock and kept his head bowed during the plea hearing.
Crown prosecutor Susan Borg said that one of Ridsdale's victims had been a ward of the state at the Nazareth House orphanage in Ballarat when he preyed on her from 1962 to 1964, when she was aged 10 to 13.
On one occasion, Ridsdale wiped away the girl's tears after abusing her and told her what had happened was ''our little secret''. He told the girl he loved her and she was his special little girl before giving her a white bag of boiled lollies.
When the young girl decided to tell one of the nuns what Ridsdale was doing to her, she was told ''good little girls don't talk about such things - off you go''.
In her victim impact statement, the woman told the court that she had trusted Ridsdale because ''he represented God and all that was good''.
She had been convinced she was going to hell and felt evil, dirty, scared and confused because of Ridsdale's abuse. The plea hearing continues.
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