Ridsdale was allowed to work as a administrator and priest at Edenhope, from April 1976 to 1980, and in Horsham, from July 1986 to May 1988, despite senior church leadership knowing of abuse allegations.

Those are the allegations put forward by counsel assisting the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, led by Gail Furness.

Counsel assisting has also called for the commission to find that the former bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns knew of allegations against Ridsdale but placed no restrictions on the priest.

“It is submitted that by the time Ridsdale commenced his appointment as parish priest of Mortlake at the end of January 1981, Bishop Mulkearns knew of allegations that he had sexually abused young people while parish priest of Edenhope only a couple of years earlier,” Ms Furness stated.

“Despite this knowledge, Bishop Mulkearns did not impose any conditions on how Ridsdale should conduct himself as parish priest of Mortlake.”

The Catholic Diocese of Ballarat covers parishes across most of western Victoria.

Ms Furness also stated that the evidence showed Bishop Mulkearns did not inform parish priest Father Frank Madden about Ridsdale’s history of sexual abuse of children prior to or during his appointment to Horsham.

Ms Furness submitted that the commission establish that Bishop Mulkearns did not put in place any restrictions on Ridsdale’s contact with children, or any supervision of his conduct, when he was appointed assistant priest of Horsham in 1986.

“This is despite Bishop Mulkearns knowing of allegations of child sexual abuse against Ridsdale in at least Inglewood, Mortlake and Edenhope parishes, and while he was at the Catholic Education Centre in the Archdiocese of Sydney,” she stated. 

Bishop Mulkearns died in April this year. Ridsdale is in jail in Ararat having been convicted of dozens of counts of indecent assault and rape against children as a result of multiple court trials.

The Mail-Times contacted the office of the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat for comment.

A spokesman for the Ballarat Diocese said the organisation would not comment on the submission by council assisting, but would wait for the royal commission’s findings.

A spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Melbourne said the organisation would not comment at this stage.

Two months before his death from cancer, Bishop Mulkearns testified via videolink to the royal commission about his handling of abuse allegations in the Ballarat diocese.

“And I’d like to say, if I may, that I’m terribly sorry that I didn’t do things differently in that time, but I didn’t really know what to do or how to do it,” Bishop Mulkearns said in February this year.

“I certainly regret that I didn’t do it differently with ... paedophilia. We had no idea, or I had no idea of the effects of the indecent (assaults) that took place.”

Counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse has recommended the commission accept the testimony of Father Peter Evans, a qualified psychiatrist.

Dr Evans spent three or four sessions over a period of a few weeks with Ridsdale after a 1975 allegation of sexual abuse at Inglewood.

Ridsdale was appointed to Edenhope on March 18, 1976, initially to to work in an administrative role.

“It is submitted that Dr Evans’ evidence that Bishop Mulkearns did not communicate with him about Ridsdale, including about his suitability to be doing parish work, and that Father Evans did not tell Bishop Mulkearns, Ridsdale or anyone else that it was OK for Ridsdale to be appointed again, should be accepted,” Ms Furness stated. 

“Dr Evans’ account is not contradicted by the documentary evidence.” 

The submission also alleged that Mulkearns did not take notes regarding the session that Ridsdale had with Dr Evans, who left the priesthood in the months after speaking with Ridsdale.

“It is submitted that Bishop Mulkearns did not take any notes of the 1975 complaint of child sexual abuse against Ridsdale or in relation to his subsequent treatment with Father Evans,” Ms Furness stated.

“It is submitted that it can be inferred that he did so in order for there not to be a record of Ridsdale’s history of sexual abuse of children.”