Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale dies at 90, survivors urged to seek help
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Gerald Ridsdale, who abused at least 72 children while serving as a Catholic priest, has died aged 90.
Ridsdale’s offending was central to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and raised serious questions about the Catholic Church’s efforts to cover up the priest’s actions.
One survivor says Ridsdale’s death “means nothing” to him, but is urging other survivors to seek support if his death triggers more distress.
For decades Gerald Ridsdale, draped in flowing white vestments, stood before countless Catholic congregations preaching about good and evil, the innocence of children, and a merciful god.
But on him, those vestments were merely a convenient costume disguising one of the nation’s most evil men — a prolific paedophile who showed no mercy as he dashed the innocence from the lives of dozens of children.
Ridsdale, who has died in jail at the age of 90, leaves behind a dark legacy that includes the abuse of at least 72 child victims over a 30-year, unchecked reign of terror.
It is believed his appalling abuse has led to several of his victims taking their own lives, and many others enduring devastating trauma that continues to this day.
Ridsdale’s crimes changed Australia’s legal system, shaped royal commissions and inquiries, and scarred a church once considered unimpeachable.
Following the revelations of his offending, Ridsdale became emblematic of a culture of an unscrupulous church that did all it could to silence the small voices of his victims.
Content retrieved from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-18/paedophile-priest-gerald-ridsdale-dead-ballarat-diocese/103762632.
