I have written on numerous occasions that I despaired Pell’s trial would become a circus that overwhelmed everything around it and everything that had come before it.
And here we are.
The High Court found there existed “a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof.”
Justice has now been done. George Pell’s conviction has been quashed.
It is reasonable to conclude that the failed pursuit of one man has overshadowed the ugly history of clerical child sex offending. Meanwhile, the significant role of another institution in this litany of misery remains locked in darkness.
We need to understand our history and not accept a sanitised version of it. And there is no time better than now to examine the role of the Catholic Church and the Victoria Police Force who often worked hand in glove to bury their culpability in the most serious of crimes.
Clearly, one has been more successful with this act of deception than the other. And that needs to change.
I received a letter from the son of a police officer just last week. He told the story of his father, as a young uniformed police officer on foot patrol around the parliamentary grounds with another similarly youthful cop alongside him. They came across two men in a public toilet engaged in a lewd act. They detained and sought to charge the two men; one was a priest, the other a member of parliament.
The charges did not proceed, no action was taken but the two young coppers remained as loose ends – eyewitnesses to the sordid episode which by then had involved multiple senior police officers and the offenders in a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
The two young coppers were dragged into the Chief Commissioner’s office and given two options – leave the police force immediately or seek transfer as far away from Melbourne as possible. One chose Mildura, the other Hamilton in Victoria’s west where he stayed and rose to the rank of Inspector. That was 1946.
In 1956, a young police constable, Denis Ryan detained a priest, John Day after Day was found drunk, semi-naked and in the company of two prostitutes in St Kilda. Day was released without charge. Ryan asked a senior officer why the priest was not brought to account and was told, “Short of murder, no priest would ever be charged in Victoria.” The senior officer explained that in the unlikely event a priest was charged, a group of police officers within the force would intervene and knock the charges over.
In Unholy Trinity, the book I wrote with Denis Ryan, we detailed a story where two detectives were in the process of charging a priest for child sex offences at Brunswick Police Station. It was alleged the priest had preyed upon boys at the nearby Don Bosco Youth Centre. The priest sat forlorn in the lock up. But not for long. A senior detective, Frank Rosengren burst into the interview room and demanded the two detectives drop the investigation immediately. The charges were dropped, the priest was released, and the two detectives were told to consider themselves lucky they still had jobs. That was 1960.
In 1962, Denis Ryan, a staunch Catholic and by then a detective constable was approached by a more senior officer, Fred Russell. Russell asked Ryan to join a group of police whose job he described as “ensuring priests did not come to grief in the courts.” Ryan declined the offer. Eight years later, Russell became the head of the Criminal Investigation Branch.
Denis Ryan attempted to prosecute an outrageous offender, Monsignor John Day in Mildura. Ryan lost his job. Senior police attended the diocesan office of the Bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns and told him of Day’s offending. Day was not charged. Instead he was moved out of Mildura and placed in another parish, Timboon, near Warrnambool. That was 1972.
Three years later in the parish of Inglewood near Bendigo, police commenced an investigation into Gerald Ridsdale. Ridsdale had been a prolific offender since he was ordained a priest in 1961. He had been shanghaied around the Ballarat Diocese, from Ballarat to Apollo Bay, Mildura and Warrnambool but this was the first time we know of that he came under the scrutiny of police.
A Bendigo detective took one victim statement to Mulkearns in Ballarat in an effort to have Ridsdale transferred.
One resident of Ingelwood, an ex-cop himself, described the scene in his hometown. “All of a sudden, detectives came up from Bendigo. Then he (Ridsdale) was gone.”
Shortly afterwards, a detective travelled to Ballarat and met with Bishop Mulkearns to tell him Ridsdale would not be charged, but they thought he was guilty and should undergo therapy.
Just to be clear, Ridsdale was no low-level offender, “a fiddler” as victims often describe priests with wandering hands. One victim described Ridsdale “as the sort of man who would rape you and then threaten to kill you if you ever told a living soul about what had happened.”
Ridsdale who would later describe himself as “out of control” in Inglewood, would go on to offend at Edenhope, Bungaree and Mortlake, where he would be out of control again.
We might think these cosy, collusive arrangements between the Victoria Police Force and Church were driven by the pressures of sectarianism within the force, a force divided between Catholicism and freemasonry, where both protected their own. There is certainly some truth to that back then.
But by the mid-1980s those pressures had started to ease, driven largely by the decline of freemasonry.
Ridsdale was sent to Mortlake by Mulkearns in January 1981. The extent of his offending in that town of 1,000 people is difficult to conceive. It is said that almost every boy between the ages of 8 and 14 suffered some form of sexual abuse at the hands of Ridsdale.
He was shuffled out of Mortlake in 1982 by Mulkearns when the weight of his crimes became impossible to ignore. Mulkearns sent him to Sydney, where he offended again and again.
By this time, Victoria Police had taken an active interest in Ridsdale and this would lead to his first conviction in 1993 after he pleaded guilty to 30 counts of indecent assault against nine boys aged between 12 and 16 between 1974 and 1980.
But here again there is anecdotal evidence of certain police inveigling themselves on the outcome, tampering with evidence, victim statements disappearing. Ridsdale’s more serious crimes involving penetrative rape were not pursued at this time. He was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of three months.
I know of one victim who had made a statement to VicPol detectives in 1985 alleging Ridsdale had raped him in 1983. The victim is now a police officer in another jurisdiction.
At the time of the offence, the victim’s father was ill in hospital suffering from cancer. It was thought he would not survive. Ridsdale raped the teen at the man’s home in Mortlake and then took the 40-minute drive to Warrnambool Base Hospital to administer the last rites.
The victim’s statement went missing and was never found. He contacted VicPol’s Sano Task Force several years ago but they had no knowledge of his allegations and inquiries confirmed the statement had vanished. That episode would form the basis of charges to which Ridsdale pleaded guilty almost a quarter of a century after his first conviction.
Recently, I became aware of three priests in Ballarat in the 1990s who had a number of things in common. They had all been expelled from seminaries for misconduct. All three were considered to be inappropriate persons to join the priesthood. But Bishop Mulkearns persisted and sponsored their training in other seminaries. They would all become child sex offenders.
With a light, however dim, now shining on the Ballarat Diocese, those three priests were considered potentially embarrassing and were asked to leave the priesthood. They weren’t laicised as far as I can tell. Their names feature in the annual Australian Catholic Directory; where they were ordained, what parishes they served. In the edition of the directory the following year, they were gone. Vanished. Like ghosts.
All three had been persuaded to leave the arms of the Church. They had all come to the attention of police but were never charged nor subject to any police investigation. They were waved through and allowed to set themselves up as ordinary citizens in communities that could have no idea what threat they posed. That was 1995.
By this time, there were police engaged in the earnest investigation of offending priests and other clerics. They invariably describe their work at the time as unsupported by senior colleagues. One detective who first brought the monstrous Christian Brother Ted Dowlan to justice wrote memos to senior police almost begging for the establishment of a task force. His requests were ignored.
Other detectives carried out their investigations largely in private, deeply suspicious of sharing information with colleagues in the fear that their investigations would be compromised.
That is the potted history. There’s more, of course. In Ballarat, in Melbourne and elsewhere in Victoria. It speaks of manifest failures, wilful ignorance and systemic corruption.
When we move to the present and VicPol’s Sano Task Force’s attempt to prosecute George Pell ending in ignominy, the question must be asked, did Victoria Police seek to erase its dismal history by the failed pursuit of one man, a prince of the Church?
Consider an alternate reality where John Day had been charged and sentenced to a long term of imprisonment for his crimes against children in Mildura in 1972. Or if Ridsdale had been brought before the courts and prosecuted in Inglewood, 1974. Hundreds of victims would have been spared the trauma of abuse. There is no other way of looking at it.
We understand the Catholic Church’s failings, the miserable felonious business of covering up and moving clerical paedophiles onto other parishes and new groups of unsuspecting victims. What is barely known is the role of the police in facilitating those crimes.
There’s no shortage of guilt. More than enough to go around.
This column was first published at The Australian on 8 April, 2020
I dream of days when this is all over and we can spread our wings again.
I have some Qld sunshine in mind – on Stradbroke Island with the kids.
Which got me thinking a bit laterally.
Re : the Jobkeeper and Jobseeker allowances. For those who were permanent, or longstanding casuals earning less than $1500/fn, this has no doubt been like Christmas come early. And for others earning more it kept their job for them at least….
But the Jobseeker, which is Newstart doubled, might give Scott a few dramas when he tries to take it back to $550. He’s going to meet fierce resistance I suspect as it was always considered inadequate – and I wonder how he will deal with it?
Those allowances won’t even start until May I’m told Boa so aside from relying on family & friends to fend off starvation & put a roof over their heads, I’d say for the majority most of it would go on back-paying rent & loans from others. Newstart has been woefully inadequate for a very long time but I’m not holding my breath for a government with a proven intolerance for our poorest, to raise the rate when this is over.
Straddie was home for me in my late teens for six months & I’ve been back many times over the years. The beauty of the cliff views of the ocean never changes….😍
I used to do gigs at the North Straddy Pub. We would live in for a week and play nightly.
Can still remember doing the owner’s wife’s birthday party. A big night!
Best quote I have seen about the inter-connectedness of the world was “A person sneezes in a Wuhan wet market and the world economies grind to a halt”
Very much along the lines from Jurassic Park “A butterfly flaps in wings in the Amazon and …”
Hi Jack, hope you and yours are well, and especially, are you ok regarding your previous health issues? Hope so.
A few things regarding the Victorian situation as in, police interfering or protecting clergy in the cases of serial offending priests and sexual assault offences I find a bit worrying, and ultimately, mystifying. Especially when the worst ones were regular or recidivist offenders.
Why were the Victorian police so enthusiastic in protecting these vermin who preyed on children? I just can’t believe that it was only because a lot of police were Catholics or/and in the masonic lodge. As the majority of police are also family men with children who mostly would have gone to catholic schools, it seems to me the parental instinct would override any supposed allegiance to these vile people, with the need to stop them offending further being paramount by way of legal action, sending them to jail perhaps, ensuring they were defrocked, maybe excommunicated, at least hurled out of the priest or brotherhood if found guilty, and basically, putting the rights and especially the welfare of victims first and foremost.
As I may of mentioned some time ago, I’m pretty sure a friend of mine was molested by a parish priest when in grade 6 or 7, who was later investigated and charged in the late 90’s with a few dozen, yep, a few dozen, offences against altar boys and others in the late 60’s and 70’s. It seems to me, any straight shooting detective would have put 110% effort into investigating this scum if complaints were made or it came to his attention through catholic friends or relatives. The sheer volume of this man’s offences would make it highly unlikely it was all secret, someone knew about it. Seems to me to be on a parallel with the Victorian scene and repeat offenders.
I noticed reading some comments by people in the Oz regarding Pell, one W. Harmer (not a font of wisdom in my book, but anyway) stated, “follow the money”. It occurred to me that the Catholic Church is one of the most wealthy institutions on the planet. Could it be that simple? Hardly likely, but. Were brown envelopes involved? Perhaps there should be an enquiry into that possibility right there. If it were proved to be so, the persons who gained out of that system should be punished more harshly than those who committed the offences.
Going back to Dwight’s post about the proposed apps to alert people to whether they’ve been in close contact with infected people, that could really make for some top-flight entertainment.
What about, instead of your phone giving you a little buzz or a nudge to alert you to having been in contact, as soon as you get within ten metres of a plague-carrier, your phone lets out a blood-curdling scream at top volume? I reckon this would do the trick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPe-FsZa9ts
Imagine some poor bugger who’s had the thing walking along a train platform or through a shopping mall followed by this wave of screaming as they walk past the crowd! It’s just got comedy gold written all over it!
New Blog soon, Mr Insider, i want to give Kenny Copeland a razz up? Cheers
Just read an article re the likely hood of a vaccine for the Wuhan Virus given by a very blunt Qlder.
It goes along the lines that since we have never produced a vaccine for a Corona Virus the chances of producing one now is pretty remote.
The reason is that it infects the upper respiratory tracts and the body is not good at protecting that – bit like a virus on your skin.
So that leaves a number of options.
1. Completely eradicate it from the world – bit of a missed opportunity there due to CCP stupidity – and nearly impossible now
2. Live with it – getting it might give you some immunity for a few months but that also means isolating the vulnerable for ever –
3. Eradicate it from areas in the world and protect your borders like there is no tomorrow.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-04-17/coronavirus-vaccine-ian-frazer/12146616
As the actions of the CCP at the start of the tragedy slowly see the light of day , I wonder when somebody will charge the CCP with crimes against humanity – after all many were prepared to go after people in the Western World for far less a crime.
I hear the Cardinal is gearing up for many many lawsuits and if true who could blame him he has been defamed and vilified by so many who soon will pay dearly.
How?
JTI just wondering if the blog is still up & running or do I have a problem with updates? No pressure mate…😊
I take it all back. Thanks.
I was a bit slack yesterday and didn’t update comments, Bella. It’s done now. Also there’s a new column up, so I’d appreciate if we could roll off this one and move on to the next. Cheers.
Well, at least while the sofa is taking on the shape of my butt, there are some interesting movies on.
REG: All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
4 ft 8 and 1/2 in railway gauges?
Shaking hand with the right?
The basis of a zillion movies?
And they did not give us irrigation – that was going way before they came along.
LOL! Classic Python!
Fucking Romans let my lot down in the Second World War Dwight. But then again it depends if your talking about your standard Roman from 100AD or your flash Roman who was really a Turk from around 500. Constantine’s your bloke!
I say Wissendorf, your 14 April contribution appeared to include a bit of concern in fully understanding the bat-human-coronavirus health nexus. So much so that you have taken to the baccy and booze to alleviate your fears. You’re not on your Pat Malone mate, even the bat biology boffins are not full bottle on the issue.
The whole shebang is a bit of a mystery to me. But what we do know, there seems to be a consensus among the relevant scientific community that SARS-COV-2 originated in horseshoe bats. The bats probably infected the masked palm civet which subsequently passed the virus onto humans via consumption of bat meat (UGH!). Meanwhile, a similar contagion, MERS-COV was passed to dromedaries via bats and then on to humans. Again, by consumption of camel meat. (Just a quick aside, I was in Egypt a few years ago and enjoyed a camel burger. Luckily I didn’t catch a lurgy, but you wouldn’t get me within a bulls roar of one now). Later the SARS-COV2 was discovered in pangolins (one of the few remaining dinosaur creatures). This is another Asian delicacy. Raccoon dogs, ferret badgers and even cats can be similarly effected.
So, the scientists (God bless em) seem to have been “test-tubing” this corona virus business for some time now. They’re up to number 19 and we appear to be still unsure where it will all end. Hope I haven’t dampened your spirits further Wiss, but stick to your present vices and become a vegetarian for a while and you’ll be right mate.
Carlos de la Costa,
Thanks Carl, I did actually read somewhere that vodka was the tipple of choice to repel the virus, but if that was true Putin wouldn’t need a hazmat suit. Cap’n Morgan seems to work OK for me though. The pipe I hadn’t used since my surgery 2 years ago, but I rationalized it thus; if I’m gonna kark, I might as well go down enjoying myself. I didn’t enjoy the price for a tin of baccy though. It’s a lifelong habit, and though I’ve had a break from it temptation was constant … I really enjoy my pipe. I drove down to the other end of the island and saw no camels or pangolins (which I thought were some sort of monkey) so I’m alright there. Vegetarianism is not my go at all, but my diet is rich in fish and crabs, and lots of salads so I suppose I’m a pisceo-vegetarian or something. You’ve given me a great reason to avoid Egypt too. I will cheerfully maintain my prophyclatic prescription per your advice. Thanks. Back a winner champ. 😉
Read that about vodka….I don’t like it much, but that could be my next project
re the Wet Markets in China.
It’s not clear to me what the position of either the CCP or the WHO is.
We still have wet markets here in HK.
They sell flowers and fruit and veg and meat, pork and beef mainly. The meat is usually hanging from hooks, and can smell a bit ripe in the summer, and I give it a swerve, but the locals don’t seem to get crook from it.
The seafood is on iced slurry trays and quite a lot of it is live. Prawns wriggling around, clams of various kinds, the razor clams are the most popular, and fish flopping about a bit.
A customer will select a fish and ask for one fillet, this usually takes quite a bit of loud gesticulation and disagreement, then the fishmonger gives the chosen fish a slap on the head with the chopper to keep it still, runs the chopper along the fish freeing one fillet, and pops the wiggling half fish back in the slurry, the other fillet in a bag and collects the money.
None of this for the squeamish, and fewer and fewer locals prefer to shop this way, but I don’t think it is a risk of causing a pandemic.
Until about 2013, live chickens used to be part of this scene, killed, plucked, rinsed in a bucket and chopped on a block, but after an outbreak of bird flu the HK government put a stop to that.
For that matter, when we moved here in 2008 our local chain supermarket, we lived in a pretty Chinese area, still had a glass case of live frogs for sale. Same procedure, chose your frogs, an employee wields the chopper and a bit of a skinning knife and you take home some very very fresh frog legs.
That practice too has disappeared.
The question is, just what sort of a Wet Market are the CCP and WHO going to allow?
That is the question. Just what is being sold. Exotic animals are just asking for trouble.
Jeezus JTI I have a comeback for those two sentences but I worry about Boa, Bella A d Penny’s tender ears!
I’m reading a lot of reports citing the “American intelligence community” which is now supporting what was a conspiracy theory, that it leaked from the lab. But, I haven’t had a lot of regard for them, well, since they didn’t notice the USSR was on its last legs. That reminds me, I need to ask my wife and her employer about this. Once they’re out of quarantine.
Couple of “shock-horror” pics here and there of shrimps and things crawling around at an apparently re-opened “wet market”.
Considering our poor crayfish arrive in China still wriggling around in straw in a box I don’t have an issue with that. Almost seems humane in comparison.
It’s the domestic dogs,cats and exotic wild animals that should be banned – immediately.