Remember David Ridsdale going to Channel 9’s ’60 Mins’ and feeding them a story about Cardinal Pell trying to bribe him? It was a wonderful trick for Ridsdale and his gay mates. And ’60 Mins’ lapped it up.
That was around the time that Archbishop Pell refused to give communion to the members of the Raindbow Sash movement. It was around the time that they stood outside St Patrick’s Cathedral yelling they would get Pell in the end. And they did.
Were you surprised to learn Ridsdale was gay? Were you surprised that he turned out to be a paedophile – using the same terms applied to Cardinal Pell? I wasn’t. Something stank about that fellow. The odour wafted from the UK where he went to hide. Here’s part of the story courtesy of ABC News who supported Ridsdale in his 60 mins gambol.
David Ridsdale: Child sex abuse survivor accused of not being open about his own past as an abuser
[Victim Coery Artz] was 12 years old when Mr [David] Ridsdale, then a leader at the local YMCA, befriended his family.
“When you’ve got a lad 18 years old come into your life, they’re almost like a hero to you,” Mr Artz said.
Mr Artz was intrigued when Mr Ridsdale offered to teach him magic one night on the way home from the video store.
“David pulled the car over and proceeded to pull his pants down and pulled out his penis and started to masturbate and told me I had to do the same thing as well,” he said.
“I vividly remember him grabbing my penis and I had to grab his and it just didn’t feel cool. I hated it.”
Confused and scared, Mr Artz was instructed not to tell anyone.
“Afterward was the threats of ‘The devil will kill your mum and dad if you ever say anything to anyone’,” he said.
Mr Artz says the abuse happened three times, then his family moved interstate.
It would be 10 years before he reported what had happened to the Ballarat police.
Read the rest…
What does this say about the sort of people accusing Cardinal Pell of sexual abuse?