Former Priest Faces More Sex Abuse Charges

The Age

Thursday July 28, 2005

ADAM MORTON

VICTORIA'S most notorious pedophile, former priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale, faced court by videolink from Ararat Prison yesterday charged with abusing another nine children in the 1970s and 1980s.

Ridsdale, 71, appeared in the Ballarat Magistrates Court on 63 charges from 1972 to 1981, when he served as a Catholic priest at parishes across western Victoria.

The charges - 59 of indecent assault and four of buggery - were laid after the Director of Public Prosecutions, Paul Coghlan, QC, met the alleged victims and their families late last year.

The meeting convinced the DPP to reverse an earlier decision not to prosecute Ridsdale again because he was elderly and already serving an 18-year term.

Ridsdale was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years' jail in 1994 after pleading guilty to 46 charges involving 21 children.

Magistrate Michael Coghlan ordered him to reappear for a committal mention on September 15.

© 2005 The Age

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