Former Australian Priest Guilty of Child Sexual Abuse, Admits 72nd Victim

A former Australian priest who was previously convicted of child sex abuse, recently pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his 72nd victim.

Gerald Ridsdale, now 89 years old, has been in prison since 1994 and is currently serving a 39-year sentence for a series of child abuse convictions spanning from 1961 to 1988 when he worked as a Roman Catholic priest in Victoria.

Via video link from a prison hospital, Ridsdale pleaded guilty in the Ballarat Magistrates’ Court to a new charge of indecently assaulting a 13-year-old boy in 1987 while he was an assistant priest at a school in Horsham, a town approximately 300 kilometers northwest of Melbourne.

Ridsdale is scheduled to return to court on August 15 for sentencing on his 193rd conviction for child sex abuse. Over the years, his prison sentence has been extended multiple times as more victims have come forward. In October, his earliest release date was pushed to April 2027 after he admitted to abusing two brothers between 1981 and 1982.

Ridsdale, who is now bedridden, informed Magistrate Hugh Radford through his lawyer that he has been unable to walk since mid-2022, and his doctors have recommended palliative care. However, specific details about his medical conditions were not disclosed. Ridsdale acknowledged that the appropriate sentence for his new conviction would be additional prison time.

During his time as a priest, Ridsdale was moved between 16 different church positions. A government inquiry in 2017 investigating child sex abuse revealed that these frequent relocations were indicative of the church’s efforts to cover up his crimes. The inquiry also found that the late Australian Cardinal George Pell, who became the 3rd highest ranking cleric in the Vatican in 2014, had knowledge of Ridsdale’s sexual abuse of children years before his arrest.

However, denied any previous awareness of criminal allegations against Ridsdale. The Pell and Ridsdale families had a longstanding connection in Victoria. Pell himself spent 13 months in prison before his own child abuse convictions were overturned on appeal in 2020. Pell passed away in January.