Yeshivah Worker Found Guilty of Child Rape

By Adam Cooper
The Age
September 17, 2013

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/yeshivah-worker-found-guilty-of-child-rape-20130917-2twi7.html

David Samuel Cyprys.

A member of Melbourne's orthodox Jewish community has been found guilty of raping a 15-year-old boy, and pleaded guilty to molesting eight other boys, it can be revealed.

David Samuel Cyprys, 45, who was affiliated with the Yeshivah Centre in St Kilda East as a locksmith, karate instructor and leader of the centre's youth group, was last month found guilty by a County Court jury of raping the boy five times between 1990 and 1991.

A suppression order over the trial prevented media reporting the jury's verdict, until the order was lifted on Tuesday by Judge Peter Wischusen.

Cyprys was to plead not guilty in two more trials, but instead pleaded guilty to a further 12 charges on Tuesday, meaning the suppression order over his name and offending could be lifted.

The court heard that besides the rape victim, Cyprys abused eight boys aged between seven and 14 over an eight-year period, some in the Yeshivah Centre's bathing house and another while on a school camp.

Cyprys pleaded guilty to five charges of indecent assault, four charges of procuring an act of gross indecency, two counts of gross indecency and one count of attempted indecent assault.

His conviction comes after a former teacher at the Yeshivah College, David Kramer, was jailed in July for three years and four months for molesting four boys, all aged either 10 or 11, between 1989 and 1992.

Outside court, Manny Waks, the chief executive of victims advocacy group Tzedek, hailed Cyprys' conviction as a significant milestone for the Australian Jewish community.

"We have another perpetrator in our midst who has been held to full account, which is a remarkable day for justice," Mr Waks said.

Cyprys, who sat in the court dock reading legal documents, was remanded in custody until November 8 for a continuation of his plea hearing.

A previous court hearing was told high-standing members of Melbourne’s orthodox Jewish community knew of Cyprys’ offending but lied to police, failed to protect children and ‘‘swept under the carpet’’ the allegations against him.

Rabbi Abraham Glick, the principal of Yeshivah College at the time of most of the offences, told Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last year he was aware of rumours of Cyprys’ offending in the early 2000s.

Mr Waks said the management of the school and of the wider Yeshivah Centre were culpable for failing to protect the boys.

‘‘So many of the victims were part of the Yeshivah College or were involved through youth movements, etcetera. From our perspective, the Yeshivah Centre must be held to full account for everything they have known and the cover-ups and the way they treated victims,’’ he said.

‘‘We do plan to hold [the centre] to account at a royal commission.’’

Similar accusations of cover-ups were levelled at the management of Yeshivah College during Kramer’s plea hearing earlier this year.

During Kramer’s hearing, the County Court heard that in 1992, once the teacher’s offending became known, the management of Yeshivah College offered to pay for his passage to Israel if he left immediately. He did and police were never contacted.

Kramer, a citizen of both the United States and Israel, was last year extradited from the US, once he had completed a jail term for sodomising a 12-year-old boy in a St Louis synagogue.

The Yeshivah Centre last year apologised ‘‘unreservedly’’ to victims of child sex abuse, but Mr Waks said on Tuesday the statement sounded like ‘‘lawyer speak’’.

Prosecutor Andrew Grant said Cyprys’ offending including paying one boy $20 to expose himself, sexually abusing others in the centre’s bathing house and groping one boy while the youngster was in bed at camp.

Mr Grant said Cyprys also instructed two young boys, aged seven and eight, to kiss him on the buttocks during a game of ‘‘Simon Says’’.

Mr Waks commended the victims’ bravery in reporting Cyprys’ crimes. He said most had been spared having to testify at a trial, although the rape victim had given evidence in court.

Mr Waks said some victims were still traumatised by what happened to them, and had given up on their religious faith.

‘‘The impact, generally speaking, has been devastating for quite a number of the victims ... I can assure you some of them go through a lot of pain and suffering for decades,’’ he said.

Defence counsel Marcus Dempsey said Cyprys would be assessed before his next court date.