A notorious predator priest who was transferred to 16 parishes to cover up his serial sexual abuse of children has had 12 months added to his 39-year prison sentence for molesting a 72nd victim.
Magistrate Hugh Radford told Fr. Gerald Ridsdale that the priest would "probably die in custody" after reading out the serial abuser's extended sentence at Ballarat Magistrates' Court on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The verdict marks Ridsdale's 193rd conviction for child abuse and follows a guilty plea by the priest in June to the latest charge of indecent assault against a 13-year-old boy while the abuser worked at a Catholic school in Horsham in 1987.
The boy told the court how he went to the school counselor's office to meet with Ridsdale, who grabbed his arm and said he was a "big strong lad" before fondling his genitals. "It was like I was a passenger and had no control," the victim said.
"This led me down a path of destruction," the victim, who is now in his 40s, told the court. During the assault, "I felt like the world was 100 miles per hour," he added.
According to Church documents, Ridsdale was known to be abusing children during his seminary training in the late 1950s and again immediately after he was ordained in 1961 but was protected by a code of silence.
Ridsdale, who sexually abused both boys and girls, admitted in 2017 to assaulting a 10-year-old girl on the altar of a Victoria church in 1987, after she was carried to the confessional booth and stripped naked by her father.
"Ridsdale told her, 'Jesus died for our sins so we could be forgiven and if I confess to this sin I might be forgiven,'" Crown Prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams told the court. "Then he kissed her on the cheek."
Ridsdale sexually abused the girl multiple times, including once at his presbytery, once while medically assisting her injured knee and once during confession when he made her perform sexual acts after telling her that she was wicked and naughty and had to be punished.
Ridsdale told a nine-year-old altar boy that "God will forgive all of your sins" as he raped him, McWilliams said. Afterwards, he told the sobbing boy to pray for forgiveness. "He also told [him] that if he ever told anyone, God would punish his family."
Many of the priest's victims were altar boys. One altar boy was even sexually abused at the altar when the church was locked after Mass. A former altar boy told police that after Ridsdale had abused him, the priest gave him a Communion host as a reward.
In some parishes, Ridsdale lasted only months or weeks, the Broken Rites website documented. In 1990, Ballarat diocese sent Ridsdale to the United States in 1990 to stay at a residence for abuser priests run by the Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs, New Mexico.
During his nine-month rehabilitation at Jemez Springs, Ridsdale did "locums" for local parishes. The diocese of Santa Fe received complaints about the priest abusing children while helping local churches.
Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse said that there was "no doubt" that the bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, "knew or strongly suspected" that Ridsdale and other priests had sexually abused children in the diocese.
But Mulkearns' "concern was overwhelmingly about protecting the reputation of the Church and avoiding scandal," the commission added.
Moreover, "there was little evidence that he was concerned to protect children from these priests," the commission's report stressed.
"We understand that the talk about Ridsdale in particular was widespread in the Catholic
community, including amongst priests and parishioners," the report
noted. Ridsdale's "conduct was the source of gossip among priests. It
would be remarkable if it was not."
The commission noted that Ridsdale had held 16 different appointments over a period of 29 years as a priest and that "his appointments were typically short, with an average of about 1.8 years per appointment, after which he was transferred to a new role or location."
"Ridsdale's appointments were discussed at no less than 18 meetings of the College of Consultors. The frequency with which he was moved from appointment to appointment was unusual," the report added.
Western Victoria had about 55 parishes, most of which had only one priest. This relatively small team of diocesan priests knew about each other's postings, transfers, promotions and career disruptions, Broken Rites reported.
Fellow priests in Victoria knew the reason for Ridsdale's sabbatical. At Ridsdale's 1994 pre-sentence hearing, one of his colleagues, Fr. Frank Madden was asked if he had been aware that Ridsdale was sent to the United States for sexual problems. Madden replied, "Yes."
Father Madden admitted he knew Ridsdale had a sexual attraction for boys and had been involved in sex activities with boys and that the abuser was receiving treatment from a priest who is a counselor.
Father Ridsdale also sexually abused his nephew David Ridsdale, while the priest was granted a year of study leave at the National Pastoral Institute in Victoria. The diocese had granted Ridsdale a sabbatical to keep him away from abusing children.
In 1993, Ridsdale pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges in relation to eight young boys in Inglewood and Edenhope. He was convicted of further offenses in 1994, 2006, 2014 and 2017.