Abuser ex-priest still poses a risk: judge

Gerald Francis Ridsdale is old and frail but a judge believes Australia's most prolific pedophile priest could offend again if released from jail.

The 83-year-old has been in jail since 1994 and will remain there until at least 2022.

The former Catholic priest is serving a total overall sentence of 33 years, with a 28-year non-parole period, for unprecedented offending.

Victorian County Court Judge Irene Lawson said the grave and protracted offending spanning 27 years and involving 65 victims fell into the worst category for that type of offending.

"The crimes and their consequences demand a significant sentence," she said.

"It is incumbent upon the courts, however long ago the offences were committed, to express the denunciation of the community of such behaviour through the sentences that it imposes on perpetrators.

"Courts must be seen to vindicate the values of the society that they represent, fundamental to which is the protection of children."

Judge Lawson said Ridsdale's age and physical frailty has minimised - but not eliminated - the risk of him reoffending.

"I am unable to find that there is no risk of reoffending.

"Notwithstanding your advanced years there is still a need to provide for the protection of the community."

Judge Lawson on Thursday sentenced Ridsdale to 11 years' jail for abusing another 12 children in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Part of it will be served concurrently with his existing sentence, meaning the judge effectively added five years to his overall prison term, taking it to 33 years.

The earliest he can be released is April 2022, after Judge Lawson extended his total non-parole period by three years to 28 years.

Ridsdale has now pleaded guilty in five court cases to abusing 65 children while he was a priest in parishes throughout western Victoria, although his true number of victims is believed to be in the hundreds.