Cyprys to stand trial on abuse charges
DAVID Samuel Cyprys has been committed to stand trial on 41 charges relating to alleged sex crimes against 12 students, aged between seven and 20, during the 1980s.
DAVID Samuel Cyprys has been committed to stand trial on 41 charges relating to alleged sex crimes against 12 students, aged between seven and 20, during the 1980s.
In the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday, Cyprys pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include rape, indecent assault and gross indecency with a child.
The former security guard, aged 44, stood expressionless with his hands clasped in front of him, as magistrate Luisa Bazzani read the charges against him, which were allegedly committed in 1984 and 1985.
She spoke of “clear and compelling” grounds to commit him for trial and said some of the 12 original charges against Cyprys that were dropped were done so due to “lack of recall” by witnesses.
Bazzani thanked witnesses but said she was troubled by the testimony of Rabbi Avrohom Glick, a former Yeshivah College principal, and found his “assertions of a lack of any knowledge of the circumstances unfathomable”.
“Ultimately Rabbi Glick’s evidence shed little light … he was principal at all the relevant times,” she said, but was “of little assistance to the court”.
Asked to state his plea, Cyprys stated he was pleading not guilty to all the charges.
Bazzani extended Cyprys’s bail on a $50,000 surety and cautioned him to continue reporting three times a week to St Kilda police station, not to go within 100 metres of any primary or secondary school during open hours and not to go in the vicinity of airports or other points of departure from Australia.
Cyprys will face a directions hearing in the County Court on June 19 at which a trial date is likely to be set.
PETER KOHN AND TIMNA JACKS
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