Ex-victorian Priest to Face 2015 Retrial

SBS
August 21, 2014

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/08/21/ex-victorian-priest-face-2015-retrial

Former Catholic priest David Edwin Rapson will face fresh trials on child sex charges next year. (AAP)

Former Victorian priest David Edwin Rapson has been granted a six-month delay before facing new trials on child sex charges after his convictions were quashed.

Rapson, 61, was jailed for 13 years in 2013 for rape and sexual assault offences involving eight boys at two Victorian Catholic colleges between the 1970s and 1990.

But he was released on bail earlier this month after the Victorian Court of Appeal quashed his convictions.

The convictions were set aside after the Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) conceded the charges should not have been dealt with in the one trial.

Rapson's barrister Shaun Ginsbourg told a brief hearing in Victorian County Court on Thursday that there should be a delay of at least six months from the convictions being quashed to his new trials.

Judge Gavan Meredith granted the request, setting the trials down for February 23 and extending Rapson's bail.

Prosecutors want Rapson to face three trials on the charges, but his defence has argued there should be separate trials for each of the eight victims.

The trial judge will determine how Rapson's charges will be broken up and the number of trials he will subsequently face.

Victorian County Court Judge Liz Gaynor in October 2013 jailed Rapson for 13 years after he was found guilty of five charges of rape and eight counts of indecent assault against eight boys.

He was sentenced to a non-parole period of 10 years.

The OPP was obliged to change its stance on the number of trials Rapson should face after a Court of Appeal finding clarified the law.