Former Priest David Rapson Convicted of Sex Abuse of Eight Boys

By Adam Cooper
The Age
August 27, 2013

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/former-priest-david-rapson-convicted-of-sex-abuse-of-eight-boys-20130830-2sure.html

Convicted: David Edwin Rapson. Photo: Justin McManus

Former Catholic priest David Rapson has been found guilty of sexually abusing eight boys at Salesian College between the mid 1970s and 1990.

After a nine-day trial in the County Court, the jury of 12 on Friday morning found Rapson guilty of eight counts of indecent assault and five counts of rape.

He raped one of his victims on four separate occasions in 1990.

Rapson showed no emotion as the foreman said the former priest was guilty of all the charges against him after more than two days of deliberations.

Rapson had been in teaching positions at Salesian College's Rupertswood and Lysterfield campuses, where the offences took place.

His victims are men, now aged between their late 30s to early 50s.

During the trial the jury was told how Rapson would lure boys into his office with the offer of playing computer games, drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes before they were abused.

One victim related how he passed out and fell asleep after being given a soft drink and woke while being raped, while another recalled being given acrid-tasting Milo in the school infirmary before he was abused while in bed.

The jury heard one boy was touched on the penis by Rapson as the teenager stood in a line of boys dressed in singlets and underwear.

The school had failed to act against Rapson despite knowing of allegations, jurors heard.

The jury was told one victim was grabbed on the testicles by Rapson in the priest's office, but when the boy reported the incident to his parents and they confronted the school, they were told it would be in the school's "best interests" if the boy did not return.

Rapson's lawyer, Shaun Ginsbourg, had said that his client denied all the allegations, and said there were inconsistencies in the victims' evidence.

It can now be revealed that Rapson was jailed for two years in 1992 for sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at the school in 1987.

He was later defrocked by Pope John Paul II at the request of the head of the Salesian order.

Rapson was remanded in custody to appear before Judge Liz Gaynor for a pre-sentence hearing in October.