AUSTRALIA’S worst paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale has died.
The 90-year-old died on Tuesday in the medical unit of Port Phillip Prison, according to media reports.
Ridsdale abused more than 70 children over three decades as a parish priest in Victoria’s west.
He abused at least two children, including an alter boy, in the late 1960s when he was appointed parish priest in Swan Hill.
The notorious pedophile had been behind bars since 1994, but his abuse was so prolific that Victoria Police had continued to lay dozens of new historic sexual abuse charges as recently as April last year.
The sexual crimes squad brought an additional 62 new charges against Ridsdale, bringing the total number of separate charges laid against him to just under 200.
He had been serving an almost 40-year sentence when he pleaded guilty to another raft of charges in 2023.
Risdale was moved by the church to different parishes in the 30 years following being ordained in 1961, following complaints detailing abuse.
