Defence Is "Fanciful': Prosecutor

By Adam Cooper
The Age
August 30, 2013

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/defence-is-fanciful-prosecutor-20130826-2smc3.html

A jury has been urged to overlook attempts to discredit the evidence of eight men who allege they were sexually abused as boys by a Catholic priest while at a boarding school.

Prosecutor David Cordy, in his closing address in the trial of former Salesian priest David Edwin Rapson, told the County Court he wanted to ''debunk'' some of the theories the accused's barrister put forward during the trial.

Mr Cordy said it was the inference of defence counsel Shaun Ginsbourg that the complainants could not be reliable in their evidence because were teenage boys at the time of the alleged offences, nor could some of them be trusted on account of their own legal problems as adults.

Mr Rapson, 60, has pleaded not guilty to eight charges of indecent assault and five counts of rape related to alleged incidents involving eight boys between the mid-1970s and 1990.

Mr Cordy told the jury on Monday that Mr Ginsbourg had implied the complainants told ''a pack of lies'' by asking them if it could have been someone else who abused them. ''It is a fanciful argument to say that a 13 or 14 or 15 or 16-year-old boy wouldn't know who touched him in a school environment when the person who touched him is known to him,'' he said.

Mr Ginsbourg had only 10 minutes to address the jury before court was adjourned on Monday, but stressed the importance of listening to what the witnesses said in their evidence, rather than watching for how they said it.

Mr Ginsbourg will resume his closing address on Tuesday.