Ex-priest David Rapson suffered breakdown in prison after being found guilty of raping students

By Adam Cooper
Age
April 1, 2015

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/expriest-david-rapson-suffered-breakdown-in-prison-after-being-found-guilty-of-raping-students-20150401-1mcrok.html

David Rapson outside of court in 2012.

A former Catholic priest found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting school students in his care abused alcohol in the lead-up to a trial and suffered a breakdown in prison, a court has heard.

David Edwin Rapson was found guilty of five charges of rape and six counts of indecent assault at trials this year, that related to attacks on students aged between 12 and 17 years at two Victorian schools between the mid-1970s and 1990.

Rapson, 61, was originally found guilty of charges during a 2013 trial in the County Court and later sentenced to minimum 10 years in prison.

But the Court of Appeal last year quashed those convictions and ordered new trials take place. Rapson was freed from custody following the Court of Appeal's ruling.

Across four trials in February and March this year, Rapson was found guilty of 11 charges relating to attacks on six students, five of whom attended a Catholic boarding school where the then-priest was at one stage the school's vice-principal.

The other victim attended a different Catholic school.

Rapson was also found not guilty of one charge of indecent assault in the fourth trial, an allegation that related to a seventh complainant.

A pre-sentence hearing on Wednesday heard Rapson had abused alcohol in the lead-up to his 2013 trial to cope with anxiety, but was unable to self-medicate when he was jailed.

Defence counsel Shaun Ginsbourg said his client had suffered a breakdown in prison, and urged judge James Parrish to take Rapson's diminished health into account when sentencing.

But prosecutor David Cordy said little weight should be given to the anxiety and depression Rapson was now battling.

"Very few people are going to travel better in prison than in the community," Mr Cordy said.

Rapson used alcohol, cigarettes and the offer of computer games to lure his victims into his office, before they were sexually assaulted.

Jurors were told Rapson had drugged one victim's glass of lemonade and another victim's mug of Milo, before they were sexually assaulted.

The Court of Appeal last year ordered Rapson be retried when the Office of Public Prosecutions conceded the charges against the former priest should not have been heard in the one trial because of differences in the allegations against him.

Rapson, who was defrocked by the Catholic Church in 2004, was remanded in custody. Judge Parrish will sentence him on May 5.