Revelation

Storyline

In a world television first, Revelation takes cameras into the criminal trials of two notorious Catholic priests accused of sex crimes against children. Through a series of extraordinary interviews filmed during the trials, Revelation uncovers the secret lives and motivations of some of the most reviled men of modern times. One of the Catholic Church's first paedophile priests to be convicted anywhere in the world, Father Vincent Ryan, faces new criminal charges. In a shocking interview on the eve of trial, acclaimed journalist Sarah Ferguson confronts Ryan about his double life and prolific offending. Police open their files of the original investigation of Ryan, revealing how the paedophile priest was moved from parish to parish, sexually abusing children in every location. As the Ryan's trial reaches its verdict, another Catholic sex abuse gets underway. Bernard McGrath, a religious brother from the secretive Order of St John of God, is one of the world's most prolific paedophiles and the first member of his order to break ranks. In a tense exchange, McGrath names the individuals who enabled and concealed his sexual abuse of children over decades, moving him from New Zealand to Australia and to a infamous Church run facility in New Mexico. McGrath's prison confession leads to senior Church official Father Brian Lucas, one of the architects of the Church cover-up of child sex abuse. The unmissable final episode features new allegations against one of the world's most senior Catholic clerics, Cardinal George Pell. Bernie breaks decades of silence saying he was groomed and sexually abused in the Ballarat orphanage where he grew up, in a swimming pool and in the presbytery of the St Patrick's Cathedral in the 1970's. An investigation unfolds in the remote parishes of the vast outback of Victoria, searching for evidence of Bernie and Pell's parallel histories. Former residents of the orphanage come forward, some with their own stories of abuse and Ballarat priests talk bluntly about the institutional cover-up of paedophilia in their church. Steve Blacker tells how that cover-up put him on a collision course with Australia's worst paedophile priest, Father Gerald Ridsdale, who raped Steve when he was 9-years-old. Steve brings a civil case against the church, which results in a landmark decision for victims of clerical abuse. Across three compelling episodes Revelation presents the deepest portrayal of the culture and system that protected perpetrators of heinous crimes against children.