For decades, victims of clerical paedophilia in Ballarat had suffered in silence. With the first conviction of Gerald Ridsdale in 1993, the wall of silence began to break.Victims were encouraged to come forward and have their day in court. But what price justice? 

In the wake of the Ryan-Day episode in 1972, rates of clerical offending exploded in the Ballarat Diocese. Priests and religious figures preyed upon children with impunity, and victims did not know where to turn.