Priest’s abuse needs unprecedented penalty, court told

AUSTRALIA’S worst pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale spent three decades sexually abusing vulnerable children in unprecedented offending that a prosecutor argues demands an unprecedented sentence.

A judge who agrees Ridsdale’s case is the worst example of such offending ever dealt with in Victoria must now decide whether the 83-year-old spends even longer in jail for the historical crimes.

Ridsdale’s offending took place over such a long period of time, involved so many people and destroyed so many lives that the interests of justice demand a sentence that could properly be called unprecedented, crown prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams said.

“It is hard to imagine a man who has had a more devastating effect on those who have had the misfortune of coming into contact with him,” Mr McWilliams told the Victorian County Court yesterday.

“He has preyed upon the most vulnerable of the vulnerable, seeking out victims for whom their families are already in trauma and tragedy, and using that trauma and tragedy to advance his own criminal pursuits of gratification among children.

“It must be among the worst offending these courts have had the misfortune to deal with.

“Unprecedented offending demands an unprecedented sentence.”

Ridsdale’s latest guilty plea for sex crimes against another 12 children brings his official tally to 65 victims abused over 27 years, although the true number is believed to be in the hundreds.

Ridsdale used his position as a parish priest to befriend the children and their devout Catholic families in parishes in western Victoria, telling some of his victims “it’s our little secret” and one that “it’s part of God’s work”.

The former Catholic priest has been in jail since 1994, serving an effective total sen- tence of 28 years with a 25year non-parole period for similar offences.

Defence counsel Tim Marsh agreed the offending was unprecedented but asked Judge Irene Lawson not to add to Ridsdale’s current sentence or earliest possible parole date of April 2019.

That would mean the jail terms Ridsdale receives, after pleading guilty to 23 charges of abusing 11 boys and one girl between 1962 and 1988, would be served concurrently with the sentence he is already serving.

Mr Marsh said Ridsdale was now an old man and as the sentencing purpose of protecting the community has been achieved, the judge could and should go no further.

“At some point the court will need to say this man has served enough time in prison,” he said. “That time is now.”

The court heard there is no comparable case and Ridsdale has effectively become his own sentencing tariff, through his previous three sentences. He will be sentenced on August 31.