Former priest jailed: Court told of attacks on boys over three decades

By Shannon Deery
Herald Sun
April 1, 2015

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/former-priest-jailed-court-told-of-attacks-on-boys-over-three-decades/story-fnjj6013-1227288402166

Former priest David Rapson.

A FORMER Hobart Catholic priest who plied boys with cigarettes and alco­hol before raping them ­deserves a sentencing discount because he is unwell, a court has heard.

David Edwin Rapson, who taught at Dominic College in the 1980s, has many victims from his offending that spanned three decades.

In 2013 he was jailed for 13 years for crimes on children, but was released on appeal after serving 11 months.

His convictions were quashed by the Court of ­Appeal after a concession by the Office of Public Prosecutions that Rapson should have faced several trials.

It admitted that because of the varying nature of his ­offending it was unfair for all matters to be determined by a single jury, as they had been.

Yesterday the paedophile was back behind bars after being again found guilty of a string of charges.

After four ­secret County Court trials, which were unable to be reported because of suppression orders that were lifted yesterday, he was found guilty of five charges of rape and six indecent assault charges.

The offending was against six boys between the 1970s and 1990s at a Victorian Catholic boys’ boarding school. His lawyer, Shaun Ginsbourg, told a plea hearing Rapson’s physical and mental health had deteriorated since his original trial.

Mr Ginsbourg said his client had abused alcohol in the lead-up to his 2013 trial to cope with anxiety, but could no longer self-medicate when jailed.

He said this led to the former priest and principal suffering a breakdown in prison.

He urged Judge James Parrish to take Rapson’s diminished health into account when sentencing him. But prosecutor David Cordy said little weight should be given to the anxiety and depression Rapson was now battling.

In a first for the disgraced priest, who is serving his third prison term for sexual offending, he gave evidence in each of his fresh trials.

More than $80,000 has been paid to his victims.

One student, who was 15 when he was molested by Rapson, told an earlier County Court trial he was ordered not to come back to the school after accusing Rapson of ­assaulting him.

Another claimed that a priest saw Rapson molest him in the ’70s but did not move to stop the abuse.

He told police that after the priest walked in on Rapson abusing him, Rapson told the priest: “You know what we do here. God made us this way and it’s his fault.”

Another victim said he was boarding at the college when Rapson invited him to his ­office to play computer games.

The man said Rapson raped him before he got up and fled.

Rapson will be sentenced on May 4.