Gerald Ridsdale

Ridsdale was born at St Arnaud in central Victoria and grew up in Ballarat.[5] It was alleged in 2013 that Ridsdale sexually abused boys as early as 1955, when he was aged 21.[6] Ridsdale took his vows in 1961.[6]

Ridsdale worked at St Alipius Primary School, Ballarat, a boys' boarding school, from 1971, where he was a chaplain. He also worked in Apollo Bay in 1972-73.[5][7] At his 1994 trial it was said that he had been sent to a psychologist as early as 1971, though the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, said he had no idea of Ridsdale's actions until 1975, when the priest was in Inglewood.[5] One parent said Ridsdale had molested their son, but they were reluctant to let the boy be questioned by police, and the priest had moved.[5] When a police officer involved with the case spoke to Mulkearns, the latter promised to handle Ridsdale but moved him on instead.[5] Operation Arcadia, a three-month police investigation into what Mulkearns knew about Ridsdale, concluded that he knew about Ridsdale's crimes earlier than he admitted.[5]

Ridsdale was moved repeatedly. In 1976 he was moved to Edenhope.[5] In 1980 he was moved to the National Pastoral Institute in Elsternwick in Melbourne.[5] In 1981 he was moved to Mortlake and at the end of 1982 he was transferred to Sydney. In 1986 he was moved to Horsham, where two people made complaints about him in 1988.[5] In 1990 he was sent to New Mexico "for treatment".[5] He returned to Australia after nine months and was appointed chaplain at St John of God Hospital in Richmond, New South Wales, on the northwestern outskirts of Sydney.[5]

On 13 September 2019, the Diocese of Ballarat released a statement admitting that high-ranking clergy in the diocese knew of sex abuse claims against Ridsdale and afterwards made efforts to shield him from prosecution.[19] This confession came in the wake of a civil lawsuit filed against the diocese by one of Ridsdale's victims.[19]

In 2008, fourteen of Ridsdale's victims formed a group to lobby the Department of Justice for an independent justice commission to investigate how victims were paid varying amounts of compensation by the Catholic Church.[20] In 2012 the Parliament of Victoria established the Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Non-Government Organisations. The inquiry tabled its response to parliament on 13 November 2013 and the government tabled its response to the inquiry's recommendations on 8 May 2014.[21]

In May 2015, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse[22] began an investigation into the response of relevant Catholic Church authorities to the impact of child sexual abuse on survivors of child sexual abuse, their families and the community of Ballarat.[23] The hearing heard from residents, former students of St Joseph's Home, Ballarat, St Alipius Primary School, Ballarat East, St Alipius Parish, Ballarat East, St Patrick's College, Ballarat, and St Patrick's Christian Brothers Boys Primary School, Ballarat, and members of the Ballarat community about the impact of child sexual abuse on the community of Ballarat. Catholic clergy who were convicted of child sexual offences which took place within the geographical bounds of the Diocese of Ballarat also were invited to speak or make statements before the royal commission.[24] Ridsdale gave evidence over two days by videolink from prison, detailing his memories of his abusing.[25] David Ridsdale, a victim of child sexual abuse and the nephew of Ridsdale, gave evidence that he was sexually abused by his uncle between the ages of 11 and 15. The Royal Commission continued throughout most of 2017.[26][27] The commission concluded, and its report was made public, in December 2017.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that the then bishop of the Ballarat diocese, James O'Collins, had received a complaint in the 1960s that Ridsdale had sexually abused a boy but did not take action.[28][29] The royal commission was also told Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew in 1975 that Ridsdale had abused boys and again did nothing to stop the abuse from occurring.[30] The Commission found that "Bishop Mulkearns again was derelict in his duty in failing to take any effective action to have Ridsdale referred to police and to restrict Ridsdale's contact with children".[31] Bishop Finnigan stated that Ridsdale was moved because "there was a concern that the complaints would be made public".[4] The commission heard many stories from victims including one who was sent to live alone with Ridsdale at age 14 at the presbytery in Mortlake. The victim said he was "sexually abused all the time just about every day" and the commission heard evidence that Bishop Mulkearns was among a number of clergy who knew Ridsdale had a boy living with him, but failed to intervene.[32] It was also found that every boy at the school in Mortlake between the age of 10 and 16 had been abused by Ridsdale.[33][34]

On 7 May 2020, it was revealed that the Royal Commission report found that Pell knew about the abuse committed by Ridsdale and that when he was a member of the Diocese of Ballarat's College of Consultors, he deliberately took part in the effort to cover it up by approving Ridsdale's transfer from the Mortlake parish in Ballarat to Sydney in 1982.[35][36] At least one of Ridsdale's victims, his nephew David Ridsdale, testified that Pell "tried to bribe" him "into keeping quiet" during a February 1983 phone conversation. Doubt was cast on how David Risdale interpreted the conversation.[36][37][35] The Commission also found that by 1973 Cardinal Pell was sufficiently conscious of child sexual abuse by clergy to have considered measures of avoiding situations where it might occur, such as clergy taking boys on overnight camps.[35][36]

• Congregation of Christian Brothers
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat
• Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
• St Patrick's College, Ballarat