Lawyers for a defrocked former Warrnambool priest who pleaded guilty to more sex crimes have tried to have the case delayed because of the "anti-priest" sentiment after the George Pell case.
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The attempt to adjourn the case against Paul David Ryan, 70, now of Western Australia, was made after the news that Cardinal George Pell had been found guilty of abusing two choirboys was made public earlier this month.
It's understood Ryan's defence team were worried the former priest - who was shuffled from parish to parish across the south-west under former Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns - would not receive a fair trial in the wake of the Pell verdict.
The County Court judge dismissed the application and on Tuesday Ryan pleaded guilty to three offences following an investigation by Detective Senior Constable Jason Rowles, of the Sano Taskforce.
Ryan pleaded guilty to the indecent assault of a child under the age of 16 in Warrnambool in 1981, the oral sexual penetration of a teenager at a school camp in 1985 and an indecent act with a child under the age of 16 in Ararat in 1992.
Ryan, who was living in Western Australia before he was arrested, was remanded in custody under the direction of Judge Mark Dean to face a plea hearing on May 13.
Ryan has a dark history. It was not part of the court hearing on Tuesday, but it can be reported because of his plea of guilty.
Former Warrnambool police detective Colin Ryan, whose investigation in 2006 led to Paul Ryan's first criminal conviction for molesting two altar boys at Penshurst, said he was delighted to see more victims get justice.
"My investigation showed that Paul David Ryan was sponsored into the seminary by Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns, knowing he had a history of being kicked out of the Adelaide seminary," he said.
"Bishop Mulkearns was advised Paul David Ryan should not be admitted and yet he was sponsored, continued through the seminary and went on to offend against children."
Abuse allegations were made even before Ryan was ordained as a priest in 1976 and almost everywhere he worked - from Ballarat to Warrnambool, Terang, Penshurst and Ararat - until he was defrocked in 1993.
The Catholic Church paid for him to go to the United States in 1985 and 1988 and, according to evidence to the Royal Commission, the church also paid-out two boys who said Ryan abused them in the 'States.
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Much of this was under the tutelage of Bishop Mulkearns, who Ryan had known since the early 1970s.
Ryan was kicked out of the seminary in Adelaide and, in 1971, was teaching at St Joseph's in Mildura.
There, he met prolific pedophiles Gerald Ridsdale and Monsignor John Day before Mulkearns moved him to Ballarat.
In evidence to the commission, Ryan claimed Ridsdale suggested to him in Ararat in the early 1990s that he joined him and others in abusing boys after Ridsdale learned Ryan had been removed from Penshurst.
A man known only as BDP told the commission he had gone to Ararat to inquire about becoming a priest and came face-to-face with Ryan, who he said abused him when he was 17 years old.
BDP reported this to Mulkearns.
"Mulkeans did not act surprised. He did not seem to display any emotional response at all," BDP said.
Helen Watson, who gave evidence to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry in 2012, said Ryan's abuse of her son in Ararat in 1991 led to his suicide at the age of 24.
"It is well documented that Ryan's sexual behaviours were a concern to the church, which did not know where to place him or what to do with him, nor did the church act upon allegations by reporting the sex offender to the police for investigation," she told the inquiry.
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