Gerald Francis Ridsdale (born 20 May 1934) is a convicted child molester who abused children while working as a Catholic priest.[1]
Contents |
Gerald Francis Ridsdale was born at St Arnaud, Victoria, in western Victoria, the eldest of eight children. He grew up in Ballarat, Victoria.[2][3]
Ridsdale worked at St Alipius Boy's School in the early 1970s, where he was a chaplain.[2][4] At his 1994 trial it was claimed that he had been sent to a psychologist as early as 1971, though Bishop Ronald Austin Mulkearns claimed he had no idea of Ridsdale's actions until 1975, when the priest was in Inglewood, Victoria.[2] One parent claimed that Ridsdale had molested their son, but they were reluctant to let the boy be questioned by police and the priest had moved.[2] A police officer involved with the case spoke to Mulkearns; the latter promised to handle Ridsdale, but moved him on instead.[2] In 1976, Ridsdale was moved to Edenhope, Victoria.[2]
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.[2]
Ridsdale was moved in 1980 to the National Pastoral Institute in Elsternwick, in Melbourne.[2] In 1981 he was moved to Sydney.[2] He was moved to Horsham, Victoria in 1986; there, two people made complaints about him in 1988.[2] In 1990, Ridsdale was sent to New Mexico.[2] He was appointed chaplain at St. John of God hospital in Richmond, New South Wales.[2] While he was working there, a victim phoned Victoria police, leading to Risdale's arrest three months later.[2][5]
In 1993 Ridsdale was first put on trial on charges of sexually abusing children. He was jailed in 1994 after pleading guilty to 46 charges of abusing 21 victims over two decades.[2] He was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment with a minimum of 15 years.[2]
In 2006 he pleaded guilty to 35 charges relating to indecent assault against 10 boys.[1] He was sentenced in 2006 to 13 years imprisonment and with a minimum of seven years.[6] A few of his victims criticised the sentence.[6]
In 2008, 14 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.[7]