AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
SHANNON DEERY NEWS LIMITED AUGUST 07, 2014
A PRIEST accused of being one of the state’s worst paedophiles could be freed from prison today after serving just 11 months of a 13-year sentence.
The move is believed to have devastated many of David Edwin Rapson’s alleged victims who fought for more than 25 to bring him to justice.
The former priest was jailed last year after a County Court jury found him guilty of eight counts of indecent assault and five counts of rape of young boys.
But the convictions were today quashed by the Court of Appeal after a concession by the Office of Public Prosecutions that Rapson, 61, should have faced several trials.
They admitted because of the varying nature of Rapson’s alleged offending it was unfair for all the matters to be determined by a single jury. He will now face retrials in the County Court.
He rose to become vice-principal of Sunbury’s notorious Salesian College Rupertswood despite a string of allegations being levelled at him.
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