Student given sedative before being raped by priest at Sunbury boarding school, court told

By Emma Younger
ABC News
April 19, 2016

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-19/student-given-sedative-before-being-raped-by-priest-court-told/7339478

A Catholic priest drugged a student with a sedative-laced soft drink before raping him in his office at a boarding school in Melbourne's outer north-west almost 30 years ago, a court has been told.

Michael Aulsebrook, 60, is on trial in the Victorian County Court for raping a Year 7 student at Salesian College in Rupertswood in Sunbury in the late 1980s.

He was working as a teacher and boarding co-ordinator at the college at the time.

Aulsebrook has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutor Andrew Grant told the jury Aulsebrook invited the boy into his office to play computer games one night after the other boarders had gone to bed.

After about half an hour, the boy was given a glass of soft drink and he passed out, he said.

The jury was told the boy woke up to find Aulsebrook raping him on the floor of the office.

After the assault was over, it was alleged the priest told the boy "get out of my sight, you disgust me".

The court heard the boy refused offers to play computer games in Aulsebrook's office from that night on.

"He didn't feel safe at the school and acted in a way he expected would have him expelled," Mr Grant said.

The prosecutor also said when the priest was interviewed by police in 2012 he told investigators he had a computer in his office at the school but it did not have any games.

Aulsebrook's defence lawyer Megan Tittensor told the jury her client emphatically denies the allegation and they should put adverse publicity about the Catholic Church out of their minds.

"It has no bearing in this case," she said.

The trial continues.