Former priest David Rapson convicted of rape, indecent assault charges

AUSTRALIA
The Age

March 31, 2015

Adam Cooper

Former Catholic priest David Rapson has been found guilty of sexually assaulting six boys in his care at Victorian schools, in trials that can only now be reported.

Rapson was in February found guilty by a County Court jury of five counts of rape and one charge of indecent assault, but details of that trial – and his name – were suppressed because of trials that were to follow.

He was subsequently found guilty of another five charges of indecent assault across second and third trials, although the jury in the second trial could not reach a unanimous verdict on one charge of indecent assault.

That charge went before a fourth jury, which on Tuesday found him not guilty of that offence.

Judge James Parrish lifted a non-publication order on Tuesday afternoon, permitting media to report the verdicts.

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