Former priest David Rapson convicted of rape, indecent assault charges

By Adam Cooper
Age
March 31, 2015

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/former-priest-david-rapson-convicted-of-rape-indecent-assault-charges-20150331-1mbv5g.html

David Rapson leaves the Magistrates Court in 2012. Photo by Justin McManus

Former Catholic priest David Rapson has been found guilty of sexually assaulting six boys in his care at Victorian schools, in trials that can only now be reported.

Rapson was in February found guilty by a County Court jury of five counts of rape and one charge of indecent assault, but details of that trial – and his name – were suppressed because of trials that were to follow.

He was subsequently found guilty of another five charges of indecent assault across second and third trials, although the jury in the second trial could not reach a unanimous verdict on one charge of indecent assault.

That charge went before a fourth jury, which on Tuesday found him not guilty of that offence.

Judge James Parrish lifted a non-publication order on Tuesday afternoon, permitting media to report the verdicts.

Rapson, 61, is now in custody having been found guilty of a total of five charges of rape and six counts of indecent assault, related to attacks against six students at two Victorian boarding schools between the mid 1970s and 1990.

Juries were told Rapson, a one-time vice-principal at one of the schools, used computer games, soft drinks, alcohol and cigarettes to lure boys into his office before he sexually abused them. His victims were aged between 12 and 17.

Rapson was in 2013 jailed by judge Liz Gaynor for a minimum 10 years after a jury found him guilty of five counts of rape and eight of indecent assault. The charges related to incidents involving eight students.

But the Court of Appeal last year quashed the convictions and ordered the former priest undergo a retrial, after the Office of Public Prosecutions conceded the charges should not have been heard in the one trial because of differences in the offending alleged. Rapson was freed from custody soon after.

The Court of Appeal's decision devastated the men who testified in court against Rapson. Several told Fairfax Media at the time they dreaded the idea of having to again face a jury to give evidence.

During Rapson's four recent trials the juries were shown the complainants' evidence that was recorded from the 2013 trial, which spared them giving evidence again.

But in a key difference from the initial trial, Rapson gave evidence from the dock in each of the trials this year.
In the first of the trials this year, the jury was told one of the boys attacked by Rapson suffered a twisted testicle and required surgery.

Rapson told the jury and prosecutor David Cordy he could not recall a boy suffering such an injury and denied the attacks took place.

"It didn't happen," he responded to several of Mr Cordy's questions.

"Incorrect," he responded on several other times when allegations were put to him.

"I'm not lying, I'm telling the truth," Rapson told Mr Cordy when the prosecutor asked him if he was lying.

Several days later that jury found Rapson guilty on the five rape charges and charge of indecent assault.

Rapson, who was defrocked by the Catholic church more than a decade ago, was remanded in custody after that verdict.

He is due to appear back in court on Wednesday for a pre-sentence hearing.