Former Salesian College, Rupertswood, Principal Frank Klep to Stand Trial

By Shannon Deery
Herald Sun
November 29, 2017

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A FORMER school principal of one of Victoria’s most infamous Catholic colleges will fight charges of molesting students.

Former priest Frank Klep, 74, is charged with sexually assaulting three students of Salesian College, Rupertswood, at Sunbury during the 1970s and 1980s.

He was this week committed to stand trial but is fighting all charges.

Mr Klep’s lawyer Antony Trood told the County Court on Wednesday Mr Klep denied some of the charges and could rely on an alibi in relation to others.

“Immigration records are being sought to see if Mr Klep was indeed in the country at the relevant time,” he said.

It is alleged all the assaults took place at the college while Mr Klep was a priest and teacher.

Students of the school say a sickening club of paedophiles roamed its grand halls and manned its dormitories for more than four decades between the 1950s and 1990s.

In 2004, the Australian chapter of the Salesians, the world’s second largest Catholic order, was engulfed in scandal after it was alleged local superiors knowingly moved priests accused of sexual assaults across international and state borders to evade authorities.

The order denied that they moved Mr Klep to Samoa after investigations into sex assault allegations first surfaced.