AUSTRALIA
The Age
By Daniella Miletic, County Court Reporter
December 10, 2005
A CATHOLIC priest who taught at a Melbourne college in the 1970s preyed on 10 sick teenagers while they recovered in the school infirmary, a court has heard.
Frank Gerard Klep has pleaded guilty in the County Court to 13 charges of unlawful and indecent assault. He was a teacher at the Salesian order's Rupertswood College in Sunbury when he sexually abused the boys, aged between 12 and 17.
Crown prosecutor Carolyn Burnside told yesterday's plea hearing that Klep's victims were boarders and that he assaulted them while they were in the infirmary. He was then in charge of students in the infirmary.
One victim, 15, said he was fondled by Klep and that Klep gave him oral sex, then told him he would get into trouble if he told anyone. Another boy, 16, was trying to sleep when he felt his pants being pulled down. Kelp then used a sponge to clean his penis. The court heard that one 12-year-old who was in the infirmary because he had measles, remembered Klep staring at his penis, telling him he was "looking for spots".