Punishment looms for defrocked Dominic priest and convicted child rapist David Edwin Rapson

Defrocked priest David Rapson was already rotting in a Victorian jail for child rape when he was charged with historical abuse in Tasmania. Now, he’ll finally face justice for his crimes. DETAILS >

A photo of defrocked priest and child rapist David Rapson, who taught at Glenorchy’s Dominic College in the 1980s.

After a legal process that has drawn out for years, a serial paedophile and former Dominic College priest will finally face punishment for sexually abusing three young Hobart boys in the 1980s.

David Edwin Rapson, 69, was already serving a lengthy stint in a Victorian jail for historical child sexual abuse – including child rape – when he was charged with the Tasmanian offences in 2019.

A number of attempts were made to extradite him to face justice, with the Attorneys-General of Victoria and Tasmania attempting to facilitate the transfer.

In the Supreme Court of Tasmania on Friday, Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Avery said her office reached out about 20 times to follow-up on the transfer, but received various replies – including that Covid had stalled the matter.

Ultimately, a warrant for Rapson’s arrest had to be made, Ms Avery said, with the transfer order finally made in January this year.

Rapson arrived in Tasmania in May, and pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault from 1983 to 1985, while he was newly ordained and teaching at Dominic.

A survivor of the former Salesian order priest’s abuse read out his powerful victim impact statement to the court on Friday, saying his “trust and faith in the Catholic church” had been destroyed.

He said he’d been driven into “self-destructive behaviours” including drug addiction, prostitution and petty crime as a result of Rapson’s abuse, and said his family relationships had disintegrated.

“(I’ve) had to deal with the 40 years of self loathing and carrying the blame and shame of his actions as my own,” the man said.

Ms Avery read out the statement to the court by another victim, who said he spent time with Rapson outside school and that he gave him alcohol and cigarettes.

The man said he honestly thought Rapson loved him.

After he was sexually assaulted, he said he tried not to be around Rapson alone and tried to suppress the memories of what had happened, joining the army to deal with his pent-up anger, while smoking and drinking heavily.

“I could not forget what had happened and the harder I tried to forget, the worse things were in my mind,” he said.

“I couldn’t forget what Father Rapson had done to me.”

After he found a newspaper article about what Rapson had done in Victoria, the man said he attempted suicide.

“I feel tainted by the stain that Father Rapson has left on me. I feel like everyone can see it and judges me for it.”

Ms Avery said Rapson was now eligible to apply for parole in Victoria, having served nine years and four months non-parole out of a 12-and-a-half year head sentence – but was unable to do so due to the Tasmanian matter.

She said his Victorian prison stint was for five counts of rape and six counts of indecent assault against six boys.

Defence lawyer Kim Baumeler asked Acting Justice David Porter for a sentence that would allow Rapson to return to Victoria, where he had family.

Rapson – who was defrocked in 2004 – was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on July 6.

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