Ridsdale, who has already served 23 years in jail for child sexual abuse, will not be eligible for parole until 2022

Australia’s most notorious paedophile, Gerald Ridsdale, will wait an additional three years before being eligible for parole, with Justice Irene Lawson finding his age and frailty did not mean he no longer posed a risk to the community.

Ridsdale, 83, has already served 23 years in a Victorian prison after being jailed in 1994 for sexually abusing nine boys. While he was given a sentence of 12 months at the time, dozens of other victims have since come forward. By 2006 he had pleaded guilty to abusing 54 children over four separate court cases. These additional charges meant he would not be eligible for parole until April 2019.

However, a fifth batch of 23 additional charges were brought against Ridsdale, which he plead guilty to earlier in 2017, bringing his number of victims to 65. Survivors groups say Ridsdale’s victims are likely to be in the hundreds and Ridsdale himself has admitted as much in interviews. His latest charges include multiple counts of rape and indecent assault against children as young as six.

George Pell moved abuser priest out of Mortlake parish, inquiry told Read more

On Thursday Lawson added an additional 11 years to Ridsdale’s sentence, which means he will not be eligible for parole until 2022.

Lawson described how, after being ordained at St Patrick’s Cathedral in the regional Victorian town of Ballarat 1961, Ridsdale had used his position of power and trust in the Catholic church to access and sexually assault children. Ridsdale sat at the back of the county court, head in his hands, flanked by police.

Lawson described Ridsdale’s offending as occuring on a “more or less continuous basis” over 27 years, occurring largely in Ballarat and surrounding regions and parishes.

She detailed the offences committed by Ridsdale against the latest group of 12 victims, which included altar boys training under Ridsdale and a six year-old boy who Ridsdale began abusing after the child’s mother was killed in a car accident.

She also described how a girl abused between the ages of eight and 10 by Ridsdale had a father who was complicit in her abuse, bringing her to Ridsdale numerous times so that he could abuse her. On one occasion, her father took her to a confessional booth, removed her clothes and allowed Ridsdale to then molest her.

“In addition to immediate physical and mental harm, you have caused very serious consequences to each individual victim,” Lawson said. She said his offending had caused his victims to experience trust issues, low self-esteem, low confidence, suicidality, post-traumatic stress disorder, gambling, alcohol and other drug use, antisocial behaviour, depression, anxiety, sexual dysfunction, relationship breakdowns including the destruction of marriages, an inability to maintain normal relationships, depression, anxiety, self-harm and difficulty engaging in a normal work and social life.

“Their childhoods have been blighted,” she told him. “They have lived with anger, guilt, denial and shame all their life. Many of the complainants have had their faith and teachings in the church destroyed.” She said the harm caused had extended into their families and communities.

Lawson said while Ridsdale had completed offender programs in jail, she had not been provided with any reports on his attitude to reoffending.

'Their childhoods have been blighted. They have lived with anger, guilt, denial and shame all their life.' Justice Irene Lawson on Ridsdale's victims

“Given your age and frailty I accept your risk for reoffending is reduced but I am unable to accept there is no risk, and there is still a need to protect the community,” she said.

As the case unfolded over the past few months, the details of Ridsdale’s offending and the impact of his crimes on his victims at one point brought Lawson to tears. On Thursday she described how the victims were “all completely faultless”.

Ridsdale’s legal council, Tim Marsh from Victorian Legal Aid, had told Lawson that Ridsdale should not have his sentence extended because, if the additional charges had been known earlier and accounted for during his previous court cases, his sentence would have likely been the same.

But Lawson said although she was required to consider the crimes with some concurrency, just punishment would requires a greater sentence than that already imposed.

“Yours was unprecedented offending,” she told Ridsdale. “The overall offending is grave and protracted, spanning almost 27 years and involving 65 victims.”

She added that his offending was of the “worst category”.

Australia’s royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has also revealed disturbing details about Ridsdale’s offending and the response of the Catholic church to it. In 2015, before the Ballarat town hall, the commission heard evidence that suggested Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, was involved in the decision to move Ridsdale between parishes once the abuse came to light, including parishes in Mildura, Swan Hill, Warrnambool, Apollo Bay, Ballarat and Mortlake. Pell has always denied any knowledge of children being abused in Ballarat.

The commission heard Catholic priests involved in the sexual abuse of young children were repeatedly moved to different parishes in Victoria and sent on “treatment” trips to the US and Italy rather than being expelled from the church and reported to police.

Pell supported Ridsdale during his first court appearance for child sex offences in 1993, accompanying him to court.