Gerald Francis Ridsdale (born 20 May 1934), an Australian laicised Catholic priest, was convicted between 1993 and 2013 of a large number of child sexual abuse and indecent assault charges against 54 children aged as young as four years. The offences occurred from the 1960s to the 1980s while Ridsdale worked as a school chaplain at St Alipius Boys' School in the Victorian regional city of Ballarat.Ridsdale was born at St Arnaud, in western Victoria and grew up in Ballarat.Ridsdale worked at St Alipius Boy's School in the early 1970s, where he was a chaplain. He also worked in Apollo Bay in 1972-73. At his 1994 trial it was claimed that he had been sent to a psychologist as early as 1971, though the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, claimed that he had no idea of Ridsdale's actions until 1975, when the priest was in Inglewood. One parent claimed that Ridsdale had molested their son, but they were reluctant to let the boy be questioned by police and the priest had moved. A police officer involved with the case spoke to Mulkearns; the latter promised to handle Ridsdale, but moved him on instead. In 1976, Ridsdale was moved to Edenhope. Operation Arcadia, a three-month police investigation into what Mulkearns knew about Ridsdale, concluded that he knew about Ridsdale's crimes earlier than he admitted. Subsequent revelations in 2013 claimed that Ridsdale, aged 21, allegedly sexually abused boys as early as 1955. Wikipedia
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