He was convicted between 1993 and 2017 of a large number of child sexual abuse and indecent assault charges against 65 children aged as young as four years.
[3][5] At his 1994 trial it was said that he had been sent to a psychologist as early as 1971, though the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, said he had no idea of Ridsdale's actions until 1975, when the priest was in Inglewood.
[3] He returned to Australia after nine months and was appointed chaplain at St John of God Hospital in Richmond, New South Wales, on the northwestern outskirts of Sydney.
[3] While he was working at the hospital, a victim phoned Victoria Police in November 1992, leading to Ridsdale's arrest in February 1993.
[3][6] In May 1993, Ridsdale was charged on summons in the Melbourne Magistrates Court with 30 counts of indecent assault against 9 boys aged between 12 and 16 between 1974 and 1980.
[3] In 2006, he pleaded guilty to 35 charges relating to indecent assault against 10 boys between 1970 and 1987 in Bacchus Marsh, Ballarat, Warrnambool, Edenhope, Horsham and Mortlake.
[13] On 15 August 2017, Ridsdale pleaded guilty to 23 charges, including two counts of rape and one of buggery, for abusing 12 children, 11 boys and 1 girl aged 6 to 13, between 1962 and 1988 in Ballarat and the surrounding area.
[17] On 14 May 2020, a Victorian County Court Judge, Gerard Mullaly, extended Ridsdale's non-parole period, which was originally scheduled to end in 2022, by another two years to 2024.
Catholic clergy who were convicted of child sexual offences which took place within the geographical bounds of the Diocese of Ballarat also were invited to speak or make statements before the royal commission.
[34] The royal commission heard many stories from victims, including Paul Levey who was sent to live alone with Ridsdale at the presbytery in Mortlake.
Ridsdale took Levey to White Cliffs, New South Wales, where the priest would fossick for opals and began abusing the boy.
[36] The commission heard evidence that Bishop Mulkearns was among a number of clergy who knew Ridsdale had a boy living with him but failed to intervene.
[39][40] On 7 May 2020, it was revealed that the royal commission report found that Pell knew about the abuse committed by Ridsdale and that when he was a member of the Diocese of Ballarat's college of consultors he deliberately took part in the effort to cover it up by approving Ridsdale's transfer from the Mortlake parish near Ballarat to Sydney in 1982.
[41][42] Previously known only by the court issued pseudonym 'JCB', Steve Blacker was raped by Ridsdale in the confessional at St Colman's Church, Mortlake, in 1982.
[citation needed] On 28 September 2019, the diocese finally admitted legal liability and settled with Blacker, paying him $1 million in compensation.
This was the first time a Catholic religious authority in Australia had admitted legal liability in a child sex abuse case.
[45][46] Blacker was interviewed by Sarah Ferguson for the ABC documentary series Revelation, where he spoke publicly for the first time about his abuse at the hands of Ridsdale.