Cardinal George Pell denies bribing pedophile Gerald Ridsdale’s nephew

Cardinal George Pell refutes allegations he tried to bribe a victim of pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale.

David Ridsdale, the nephew of Australia’s worst pedophile priest, told a royal commission hearing into child sexual abuse on Wednesday that he told Cardinal Pell in 1993 about the abuse at the hands of his uncle.

However, Cardinal Pell, who is a friend of the family, issued a statement that same night, denying that any such conversation took place and expressing his regret at the misunderstanding between the couple.

Scroll down to watch the video

Mister Ridsdale told the inquest that Cardinal Pell asked him: “I want to know what it takes to keep him quiet.”

Mister Ridsdale said Cardinal Pell began talking about his growing family and that he would soon have to buy a car or a house.

He said his response was “fuck you, George and everything you stand for.”

Cardinal Pell said the matter required an immediate response as it was important to correct the record, particularly given “the false and misleading headlines”.

“At no time did I attempt to bribe David Ridsdale or his family or offer any financial incentive to remain silent,” the statement said.

‘At the time of our conversation, the police were already aware of the allegations against Gerald Ridsdale and were investigating. Then and now I supported these police investigations.”

“I was and remain extremely sympathetic to David Ridsdale, who because of his uncle suffered horrific abuse,” he said.

“I continue to regret the misunderstanding between us.”

The royal commission uncovered church documents revealing Cardinal Pell helped move Ridsdale between parishes at the height of his reign of terror.

But Cardinal Pell insisted he never moved Ridsdale anywhere.

“I would never have tolerated or participated in the decision to transfer Gerard Ridsdale knowing that he had abused children, and I did not,” he said.

After hanging up, Mister Ridsdale said she told her sisters about the phone conversation.

“I remember telling my two sisters, ‘That bastard just tried to bribe me,'” Mister Ridsdale said at the royal commission hearing in Ballarat.

“I have never said that Pell offered me anything specific or tangible in our conversation, only that his attempts to steer the conversation down a particular path made me very suspicious of his motivations and what he was implying.”

After this telephone conversation, Mister Ridsdale decided to call Bentleigh police station, the ABC reported.

“They said someone would call me back… about an hour later, the police called me back and said, ‘Do you know your uncle was going to be charged later today?'” he said.

He said he told police he was unaware and then went to the station for a long, “ultra-specific” interview about his traumatic childhood experience.

The following day, Gerald Ridsdale was charged with indecently assaulting David Ridsdale and several other boys.

The commission’s chairman, Judge Peter McClellan, says Cardinal Pell will be asked to make a statement about the allegations.

Church lawyer Peter Gray SC said Cardinal Pell has publicly and repeatedly recounted his recollection of the conversation with Mister Ridsdale is quite different.

Judge McClellan said he expected the commissioners to make a decision finding about what they told Cardinal Pell.

Mister Ridsdale described years of abuse that began when he was 11 on a parishioner’s farm in Edenhope during school holidays.

He said that from then on his uncle “took advantage of every opportunity to initiate a sexual interaction with me” until he was 15 years old.

then it was about explain la la The “charismatic” priest was considered the “bright light” on his father’s side of the family.

“As a priest, Gerald had an almost supernatural level of power in our family and exercised great control over the family,” he said.

“They treated him as if he were better than his brothers and he took almost full advantage of his exalted status.”

Another abuse victim, BAV, told the commission that after being abused by Ridsdale in a Ballarat presbytery bedroom, Cardinal Pell, who also lived there, came home.

“I saw Father Pell’s back, but I didn’t know if he saw me and Father Ridsdale or not,” BAV said.

Cardinal Pell has previously denied Mister Green told him about the abuse, after the claims appeared in the media.

Cardinal Pell said in 2002: ‘28 years later, I don’t remember any such conversations. If I had been contacted and thought the stories were credible, I would have informed the Christian Brothers.‘

Dowlan65, was ordered in March to serve at least three years of a six-year prison sentence for indecently assaulting 20 children in his care at Victorian schools in the 1970s and 1980s.

Cardinal Pell has been mentioned at the commission this week by several witnesses who claim he knew of widespread abuse in Ballarat while he was a priest in the city in the 1970s.

One abuse victim told the commission that Pell ignored him and left after he was told a Christian brother was sexually abusing children.

Timothy Green, 53, said he then told Father Pell that Brother Edward Vernon Dowlan abused boys at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat in late 1974.

‘I said brother Dowlan is touching little children’ Mister Green said Wednesday.

“Father Pell said ‘don’t be ridiculous’ and left.” Mister Green, who said he was 12 or 13 when he told Cardinal Pell, was himself a victim of Dowlan.

Father Pell asked no questions. He didn’t say what you mean or how you could say that,” he said.

“He just dismissed it and left.

‘His reaction gave me the impression that he knew about Brother Dowlan but he couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything about it.’

The former Archbishop of Melbourne, who now resides at the Vatican where he oversees the Catholic Church’s finances, was involved in at least one decision to transfer the perverted priest, the investigation has heard.

Then Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns learned Ridsdale had abused children “so he was removed from there” and moved again to another parish, the royal commission into abuse heard on the opening day of three weeks of hearings at the city ​​devastated by decades of abuse.

Cardinal Pell supported Ridsdale at his first court appearance for sexual offenses against children in 1993, but has repeatedly denied knowing that any children were abused in the Ballarat parish when he worked there.

Senior counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, said Ridsdale’s relocation from a Ballarat parish was discussed at a meeting of the bishop’s advisers – the College of Consultants – in September 1982, where the cardinal was present Pell.

The minutes of the meeting say that the bishop advised that it was necessary for Ridsdale to move from the parish of Mortlake, but do not reveal what reasons Bishop Mulkearns gave.

“There will be evidence that Bishop Mulkearns knew it was because Ridsdale had abused boys in Mortlake, and that he had offended in this way in 1975,” Mrs Furness said.

Ridsdale will testify via video link from jail during the three-week Ballarat hearing, while a nephew he abused will be one of 17 victims testifying.

It was not until June 1988 that Ridsdale was suspended for 12 months, 13 years after Bishop Mulkearns first learned that he was sexually abusing boys he met during his work as a priest.

Ridsdale had been to nine parishes and other churches during that time and abused more than 50 children, Furness said.

In May 1993, Ridsdale was charged by subpoena with 30 counts of indecent assault on nine children between 1974 and 1980. He was convicted and sentenced to 12 months in prison.

After being found guilty, he was almost immediately retried for the sexual abuse of 20 boys and one girl.

He was convicted on 46 counts and sentenced to 18 years in prison with a minimum of 15 years to be served cumulatively with the previous sentence.

In 2006, Ridsdale pleaded guilty to 35 charges relating to indecent assault on 10 children. In 2013, he pleaded guilty to 29 new charges after being charged with 84 crimes.

Risdale has been behind bars since his arrest in 1990.