CATHOLIC School Had Abuse Culture: Court

9 News
May 27, 2016

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/05/27/12/12/vic-priests-raped-boy-in-same-way-court

A Victorian judge will sentence an ex-Catholic priest who raped a Year 7 boy on his office floor on the basis "that's just the way they did it at Salesian".

Prosecutors told the Victorian County Court on Friday Salesian College Rupertswood appeared to have had a culture of drugging and raping students.

The school's borders co-ordinator in the late 1980s, Michael Scott Aulsebrook, has been found guilty of raping a boy he enticed into his office with computer games before drugging him.

The Traralgon man, 60, faced a plea hearing on Friday, when Judge Geoffrey Chettle said the victim was also raped by de-frocked predator David Erwin Rapson in a similar manner while at the school.

He said he needed to consider whether to sentence Aulsebrook on the basis he and Rapson discussed their offences.

"Either there's been some communication between Rapson and this accused or that's just the way they did it at Salesian College," Judge Chettle said.

"It's almost like this kid was passed around."

The alternative to collusion was that "it's the culture of the place", he said.

Prosecutor Andrew Grant said it would be difficult to rule out the second option.

"There certainly appeared to be a culture at that school that involved this type of behaviour and the use of substances," Mr Grant said.

Judge Chettle said since there was no evidence the two men had communicated he would sentence Aulsebrook on that basis.

Aulsebrook maintains he is innocent of the rape, but has pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault against two other victims, one male and one female.

The rape victim's mother said in a statement on Friday her son's emotional development was stunted by the rapes.

She thought sending her son there would be the making of him.

"Little did we know what we were sending him to," she said.

The boarding school's reputation has been blackened by some of Victoria's most notorious paedophile priests, including Rapson, Frank Klep and Julian Fox.

Rapson sexually abused six boys in the 1970s and 1980s, one at Salesian College Rupertswood.

Like Aulsebrook, he lured them to his office with video games, cigarettes and alcohol.

In 2014, a judge broke down while describing the campaign of abuse Klep exacted against vulnerable students at the school.

Klep pleaded guilty to 15 charges committed between 1974 and 1983.

Julian Benedict Fox sexually assaulted two 14-year-old school boys, one of whom was at Salesian.

Defence barrister Megan Tittensor said there was no doubt Aulsebrook's offending is extremely serious.

"As a consequence of what he's done he's isolated and alone," she said.

Aulsebrook will be sentenced on June 22.