Ex-Vic priest extradited on assault charge

(AUSTRALIA)
Newcastle Herald [Newcastle, Australia]

January 30, 2023

By Tara Cosoleto, Australian Associated Press

A former Victorian priest who was jailed for sexually abusing six schoolboys will be extradited to Tasmania to face more indecent assault charges.

David Edwin Rapson was in 2015 found guilty of abusing the boys, aged between 11 and 16, at two Victorian boarding schools in the 1970s and 1980s.

He was sentenced to 12 years and six months in jail, with a non-parole period of nine years and four months.

The Victorian attorney-general office on Monday lodged an application in Melbourne Magistrates Court, requesting Rapson be extradited to Tasmania.

The defrocked Catholic priest has been charged with further indecent assault offences in the island state, the court was told.

Rapson appeared in the court via video link from Hopkins Correctional Centre in Victoria’s west.

He did not oppose the application, instead telling magistrate Brett Sonnet he was “happy and thankful” to have the opportunity to front the Tasmanian charges.

He wanted to “clear up” the matters so he could return to Victoria and be released on parole, Rapson told the magistrate on Monday.

Mr Sonnet granted the attorney-general’s application but told Rapson it may be two weeks before he was extradited to Tasmania.

Rapson was originally jailed for 13 years in 2013 for the historical Victorian offences, but the Court of Appeal quashed his rape and sexual assault convictions 12 months later.

He was then found guilty in three new trials in early 2015.

Australian Associated Press

https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/8066482/ex-vic-priest-extradited-on-assault-charge/