AUSTRALIA
The Age
Ex-priest David Rapson suffered breakdown in prison after being found guilty of raping students
April 1, 2015
Adam Cooper
Court reporter for The Age
A former Catholic priest found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting school students in his care abused alcohol in the lead-up to a trial and suffered a breakdown in prison, a court has heard.
David Edwin Rapson was found guilty of five charges of rape and six counts of indecent assault at trials this year, that related to attacks on students aged between 12 and 17 years at two Victorian schools between the mid-1970s and 1990.
Rapson, 61, was originally found guilty of charges during a 2013 trial in the County Court and later sentenced to minimum 10 years in prison.
But the Court of Appeal last year quashed those convictions and ordered new trials take place. Rapson was freed from custody following the Court of Appeal’s ruling.
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Across four trials in February and March this year, Rapson was found guilty of 11 charges relating to attacks on six students, five of whom attended a Catholic boarding school where the then-priest was at one stage the school’s vice-principal.
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