Notorious priest Gerald Ridsdale has fronted a packed Melbourne court on Friday morning on fresh child-sex charges.
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The 82-year-old was charged on December 28 with multiple offences against a number of alleged victims from across Victoria.
He appeared via videolink for a filing hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.
The charges include rape, buggery and unlawful and indecent assault of children between the 1960s and 1980s while he was a priest in the Ballarat diocese.
Ridsdale was ordained as a priest at St Patrick's Cathedral in Ballarat in 1961.
He went on to work as a priest at parishes in communities including Horsham, Edenhope, Ballarat, Mortlake, Inglewood and Warrnambool until the late 1980s.
Ridsdale has been charged with 36 sex offences against 11 alleged victims over a 20-year period from 1969 to 1989.
The charges include anal rape of a girl and a boy under 14.
Police allege the offences occurred in Ballarat, Quantong, Mortlake, Ocean Grove, Edenhope, Apsley, Batwood and Riverside.
Ridsdale said little in the short administration hearing except to confirm subsequent court dates with magistrate Gwynn Carolene.
He was further remanded to face court on March 10. A brief of evidence will be ready on January 27.
Victoria Police's Sano Taskforce charged Ridsdale after a number of alleged victims are understood to have come forward to Victoria Police in the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The taskforce was set up to probe allegations arising from the royal commission.
