Paedophile priest's evidence tells of Mortlake, Warrnambool crimes

It shows Ridsdale first realised he “needed help” during his time in Warrnambool in the 1970s and that he spoke to a psychologist at the Brierly Mental Hospital during a visit to give communion to patients. 

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been told that Ridsdale later molested up to 30 boys at Mortlake’s St Colman’s Primary School while he was parish priest between 1981 and 1982. 

Transcripts of interviews between Ridsdale and Catholic Church Insurance investigators have been tendered to the commission during hearings in Ballarat which began this week. 

The commission aims to discover who was responsible for moving the disgraced priest from parish to parish, allowing him to continue to offend, and why. Ridsdale is expected to give evidence via video link from prison next Wednesday.

Ridsdale told investigators he was molested as a young child and before entering the seminary he “had a big problem with masturbation”. 

He first remembered “having the guts” to speak up during a stay in Warrnambool. 

Ridsdale told a specialist at Brierly that he thought he was homosexual, but after admitting he didn’t dream about having sex with other men, he was told he had no “problem”. 

“Rather than following up with ‘well, what about kids’, I just let it go,” Ridsdale said. 

He admitted to abusing two boys in Warrnambool, one at the breakwater and one near the Hopkins River.

Ridsdale said his life was “all screwed up” so he took a year off to attend a national pastoral institute where he could live with adults. He thought part of his problem was an inability to relate comfortably with adults.

He was then appointed to Mortlake where he admitted: “I got out of control again. I went haywire there. Altar boys mainly. They came to the presbytery.” 

Large sections of the interview transcript have been redacted, but Ridsdale said “his behaviour” was eventually no secret around Mortlake. 

“There was talk all around the place, amongst the children and one lot of parents came to me. We talked about it and I think they went away and, I just forget what the conversation was or how it ended, but we parted, I thought, on friendly terms. 

“I felt it was more of a forgiving kind of attitude.” 

Interviews with the former principal of St Colman’s, Sister Kathleen McGrath, have also been tendered to the commission. 

They show she had concerns about Ridsdale’s interactions with pupils and she banned them from going to the presbytery, even before parents had made complaints. 

Sister Kathleen said she was “floored” when a parent asked if she was aware Ridsdale was molesting boys, but after that a “number of things fitted into place”. 

She said Ridsdale would take children from the playground to the presbytery to play video games. 

She said she had no control over who was in or out of the playground and the priest wouldn’t take any notice when she asked him not to do it.

“I just knew there was something wrong with children being at the presbytery all the time. So I said not to go there, they were to come to me,” Sister Kathleen said. 

She said as soon as eight or nine families complained she telephoned Bishop Ronald Mulkearns.

“He sent Hank Nolan (vicar-general Henry Nolan) down ... and within a matter of days Gerry (Ridsdale) was gone.” 

Sister Kathleen said she had been forbidden by the bishop to speak to the rest of the staff about it. 

“There was no more discussion on it after that. There was no point.” 

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