deadmonton 2008 - other police matters - anton rapati

Details of the more serious allegations – in the form of a formal charge – have been blacked out in Edmonton Police Service documents supplied to the Last Link by Christopher. The documents also indicate delays in the initial stages of the investigation into complaints made by Philip (whose story is related below). Click on the individual documents to see the image full-sized.

At left - Philip's handwritten complaint, timed and dated 21:31 hours September 24, 2005 on a Edmonton Police Service Witness Statement Form.

Philip's statement is transcribed below:

A man by the name ---- (----) ------ would abuse me sexually 2-3 times a week, the only break I had from the abuse was if he went on a holiday. The abuse started when I was 5 going on 6 yrs old and continued until we moved from St. Albert to ----- ----- (which was 1979). Between ages 7-10 was the worst. He had access to me at school and at home, but especially took advantage of me as I walked home from school, because he worked for the Town of St. Albert in gardening, greenhouse stuff, etc ... these details I can give later.

Now to the point! This man would rape & torture me and collected my blood to strain & drink, he loved to torture animals and told me how he'd do the same to all of my family & friends. This was a constant event. Other than this constant abuse there were ...

Philip's statement goes on for another ten and-a-half pages.

At right - an Edmonton police case narrative form dated November 7th, 2005. Note the line: For unknown reasons the report was not forwarded to our Section and only came to light when the complainant called to make enquiries as to who was handling the investigation.

At left - page two of the narrative form indicating Edmonton police had forwarded the case to the RCMP.

At right - a copy of the Sexual Assault Section Case Investigation Plan & Log indicated Edmonton police forwarded the matter on November 7th, 2005.

Update:  On February 21st, 2009 details of allegations of the burial of human remains were revealed – see below.

The Last Link first interviewed Philip in the fall of 2007 about his claim that he'd been repeatedly raped and sodomized by Rapati. Philip said he initially approached the Edmonton Police Service and gave them a detailed statement but was told it was an RCMP matter.

Now a married man with three daughters, Philip continues to have nightmares about the experiences he suffered between the ages of seven and 12. He also says he has often contemplated suicide.

Describing Rapati as well-mannered and methodical, Philip said the St. Albert town gardener often freely gave small gifts to children, allowing him to "weasel his way" into their families. It was through church that the man Philip called a "smart psychopath" entered his life.

Rapati seemed to be well-respected in the community. For a child to complain about the abuse he suffered from the popular man, Philip thought it unthinkable that his concerns would be taken seriously. He kept silent for over two decades before approaching police.

Philip's family is Dutch. So is Rapati. The familiarity of common ancestry likely led to quick acceptance between the friendly man and Philip's family.

Philip alleges the abuse took place in Rapati's then small orange-coloured apartment building south of Mission Avenue in St. Albert, where the man would often speak to Philip in Dutch – further cementing a bond of some sort between the two.

According to Philip, he was first raped in a town-owned greenhouse when he was six, almost turning seven.

Rapati allegedly first took a knife and slit the throat of a bunny, killing the animal. This frightened Philip. A second rabbit then had its back and throat slit – this time with blood landing on the child's clothing while the animal shrieked.

Philip said the gardener ordered him to drop his pants and shorts. He obeyed. Philip said before he was raped, his attacker put a garden hose up his rectum to clean it out. Philip said the hose hurt; the rape also painful.

He said Rapati warned him not to tell his parents, or what happened to the rabbits would also happen to them.

The abuse continued.

Philip said he was often raped at Rapati's apartment after being accosted on his three-block walk home from school.

He said Rapati would "hog-tie" him and put a sock in his mouth to muffle his screams. To mask other noises, he said Rapati would turn up the radio and turn on the vacuum cleaner and place it near the door. While lying down on the floor, Philip recalled seeing shadows of people walking by in the hallway.

There were allegations of unusual torture. Philip claimed if didn't directly look at Rapati's eyes during the assaults, the man would punish the boy by keeping his eyelids open with toothpicks.

Philip alleged that Rapati would often suspend him from hooks and ropes in the bathroom of the apartment. A steel plate had been fashioned to the wall after the drywall gave way.

There were instances of bloodletting, Philip said, that involved incisions inside his rectum. Often he would pass out.

And before being dispatched home, Rapati made sure Philip was cleaned up and his clothes washed and dried after the times he had peed himself.

Philip called the abuse "fucking insane," often saying, "I wish I was making this shit up."

When Philip told Rapati "You are fucking going to hell," he said the man responded with "God is not coming to save you" and "He didn't come, where is He?"

Philip said that while he was tied up at Rapati's apartment, he was deprived of water. He recalled once crawling to the toilet bowl and putting his head down to get a drink. Philip's wife says that to this day her husband can't go anywhere without having a bottle of water handy, and her husband insists their children have water with them at all times.

Looking back now, thirty years after that horrific part of his childhood, Philip wondered if his older brother had too been exposed to Rapati's ways.

He believes the gardener was fired by the Town of St. Albert and then fled to California.

The Last Link has learned that a police officer in that state is also interested in the case, as he believes Rapati abused one of his relatives, a young male.

Sometime in 1993, Rapati moved to Volendam, a small town of 22,000 and a popular tourist attraction north of Amsterdam. It was shortly before he was expected to go to trial. It remains unknown what attempts at bringing Rapati home were made.

And it was only a chance sighting by Philip's older sister that led the RCMP to the man during a surprise visit back to the very neighbourhood where the abuse allegedly occurred.

Philip said he was extremely disappointed with how police handled his complaints. He simply does not trust them now. He does not feel they did a proper, thorough investigation, and he complained to the head of K-Division about this. He perceived police did little or nothing and gave him only "lip-service."

Saying he got the impression that police would have liked the whole matter to quietly "go away," Philip felt betrayed by them – read more »

CBC Edmonton aired a picture of Anton they said was taken a week before his arrest at his brother's home in St. Albert.

Media looking for Rapati's relatives didn't have to search too hard for the house, with a personalised sign in a window indicating a good place to start knocking.

Answering his door and staring down a camera, Fred stood his ground.

"Yeah you guys what do you want?" he challenged.

"I was just wondering if you were any relation to Anton ... " CBC's Briar Stewart asked.

"Yeah we are," came the quick reply from Fred's wife. "And we have nothing to tell. We didn't know anything, we know from nothing so forget it."

With that the woman tried to pull her husband out of the doorway. Fred ignored her.

"Hey now, it doesn't matter. I'm honest," he said, dispatching her back into the house.

Then Fred seemed almost eager listen to the reporters' questions and to tell them of what he knew in a high-pitched voice some found hard to understand.

Fred, a year younger than his brother, said Rapiti emigrated from the Netherlands in the 1950s and got a job with St. Albert planting gardens and cutting the grass.

Before he was to go to trial in 1993, Anton fled to Volendam. He came back after he ran out of funds.

"He kept his money here. That's why he had to come back here to get his money.

"He ... ask if he [can] come here and we say no, no. No we don't want him," Fred said.

Asked why Anton was arrested, Fred told CBC's reporters what he knew of the circumstances.

"We don't know nothing. Something with kids in the early days," Fred replied, with CBC's subtitles falling outside the 4x3 safe area.

When CTV Edmonton spoke with Fred, it was his turn to ask a question.

"How did they know he was here, I don't know," Fred said. "We don't know nothing."

On September 19th, 2008 CBC's Fralick aired a report based on the revelations contained on this page. At the same time in the Netherlands, De Telegraaf's Johan van den Dongen was digging into Rapati's past in Volendam, the town the man lived in after he fled Canada in 1993.

In April 2008, a photographer for De Telegraaf captured Rapati preparing tea for a local amateur boys and girls soccer club whose participants range in age from six to sixteen.

The shot was taken in Rapati's home in Volendam, along the street shown above.

According to van den Dongen's article (heavily censured due to Holland's strict privacy laws), two days before news of his arrest in Canada, Rapati's home was targeted by vandals who spray painted the word 'pedophile' on his windows.

The Dutch paper interviewed one of Rapati's neighbours who thinks the man left his home because of complaints stemming from the smell coming from the house. The De Telegraaf reported police entered the home wearing masks and gloves.

Rapati's neighbour said the stench was due to the dead bodies of rats and mice ... and garbage piled to the ceiling.

CBC Edmonton's Fralick contacted De Telegraaf reporter Johan van den Dongen for details of concerns that Rapati may have had inappropriate contact with youth in the Dutch soccer club (Fralick is shown above in what might be called a David Ewasuk shot).

"Right now there's some speculation that 'Well, is my son a victim as well?' That's how people talk about it," van den Dongen told Fralick.

The Dutch newspaper reported that Antonius Paulus Fernandinus Gerardus Rapati was born in Den Haag, the nation's seat of government. Research into the the Rapati family indicates its origins lie in Poland. Anton often boasted to Philip that he was able to travel freely within Nazi-held territories during World War II.

The CBC reporter shared a similar experience to what the Last Link had in trying to uncover details of any Dutch criminal investigation into Rapati's recent activities in the Netherlands: that local police will not reveal any information – whatsoever.

On October 23rd, 2007 the crime reporter Byron Christopher spoke with Frans Zuiderhoep, an officer with the Dutch police.

Zuiderhoep stated there was no registry program for sexual offenders in the Netherlands, unlike Canada. He also said he couldn't reveal if an individual there has a criminal record, or if they faced charges, citing the country's strict privacy laws.

The officer said he could possibly check with his superior, but only if the suspect's name was provided. At this point in the matter, Christopher did not offer Rapati's name and further enquiries went unanswered.

While Rapati was considered popular in Volendam, working as a gardener – mirroring his life in St. Albert – rumours circulated within the town that he was running from some kind of trouble.

"It's strange, of course, that he is arrested on Monday [September 15th] and already on Saturday [September 13th] there was someone kicking in his door and sprayed the word 'pedophile' on his window," van den Dongen told the CBC.

Efforts by Fralick to glean why no effort was made by the Canadian government to bring Rapati back to St. Albert to face charges had so far remained unanswered.

The De Telegraaf article van den Dongen wrote ends with "The details of the sadistic rapes are so shocking that they defy any description," suggesting Philip's allegations on this page were too graphic for even the liberal Dutch to contemplate.

One neighbour reported Rapati was a first-class miser, so cheap that he did not have gas or electricity connected to his home. He took showers at the local football club and boasted he booked air flights on September 11th, a date other travellers avoided resulting in cheap seat prices. It was on that date in 2008 when Rapati returned to St. Albert.

In addition to visiting Germany and Romania, Rapati had also travelled to Alaska. The neighbour was also sure the man returned to Canada at least once a year.

The article published in De Telegraaf stated that local police have no record of outstanding charges against Rapati, but neighbours have suggested he was on the run.

"At the beginning of the month he was completely hysterical and wanted to get away as soon as possible," said a man who seemed to know Rapati well.

The subject of the condition of Rapati's house was brought up at a meeting of the Edam-Volendam town council. Officials said they were waiting for word from Canadian law enforcement before considering cleaning the place up.

The paper said Rapati's house on Kathammerstraat was so filthy that neighbours are barely able to live beside it due to the stench.

"It's unbelievable, really unbelievable," Edam-Volendam alderman Wim Runderkamp said.

Update: see officials clean Rapati's Volendam house below.

There was no word if contact was made between the Town of Volendam and RCMP in Canada prior to the house being cleaned up.

Rapati told Christopher he would plead 'not guilty' when he appears in court. In a 30-minute meeting, the 85-year-old maintained his innocence and told Christopher he didn't know why police would charge him.

He confirmed that the RCMP picked him up at his brother's place in St. Albert in September. He said a Mountie came to the door and told him he was going for a ride. Rapati said he was taken to the RCMP station in St. Albert and charged.

In January 2007 a warrant was issued for the arrest of Rapati after an Edmonton man, now in his early 40s, told police he had been repeatedly raped and tortured by Rapati. The attacks allegedly happened in the 1970s, starting when the child was six.

The former gardener for the City of St. Albert had been living in Volendam, Netherlands for the past 15 years. He told Christopher he had no idea police were looking for him. He said while living in the Netherlands he was never questioned by either Canadian or Dutch law enforcement.

Rapati also claims he freely travelled to Canada many times. He said he flew to Canada once or twice a year but was never detained or questioned by the authorities – despite a Canada-wide warrant for his arrest.

The senior also confirmed details of published reports that he frequenty travelled to Germany and Romania without interference.

Police said Rapati fled Canada in 1993, just before he was set to go to trial on charges of sexually assaulting children. Rapati said he was under the impression those charges had been dealt with.

Anton Rapati's World War Two travel documents
Courtesy Johan Van Den Dongen of Amsterdam's De Telegraaf
Click on images to view full-sized

Rapati described his health as good. He says he was being treated well at the Remand Centre, although he said when he was first put into the detention facility he had to stand for ten hours. He told the reporter he complained to guards that he got better treatment when he was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp.

Rapati also talked about the jobs he had in Alberta and British Columbia, and that he had been involved with the Boy Scouts in both provinces.

Note: after this interview was conducted, reporter Christopher was "warned off" by Rapati's lawyer, Mona Duckett.

Christopher asked if the RCMP had travelled to the Netherlands to locate and interview Anton Rapati after a warrant was issued for his arrest in January 2007.

Soltys responded in an e-mail: "No, investigation eventually determined he was in the Netherlands and an extradition request was made to the Crown. The Crown did not extradite."

The statement seemed to go a long way to explain how Rapati was able to travel freely in and out of Canada in the time since he failed to appear in court in 1993 to face indecent assault charges.

The matter of Rapati's ability to visit a country where three nation-wide warrants were out for his arrest was first probed by CBC Edmonton – read more »

That Amsterdam's De Telegraaf stated Rapati was able to travel freely in and out of Canada caught the attention of the CBC Edmonton reporter who was trying to determine what efforts were made to bring the man back to St. Albert to face criminal charges.

RCMP first issued a Canada-wide warrant for Rapati on July 14th, 1993.

CBC's Scott Fralick contacted John Thompson of the MacKenzie Institute, an independent non-profit think tank with a focus on terrorism, political instability and organised crime.

"The problem was ... the RCMP and Canada Customs and Immigration back in the 1990s didn't match their databases," Thompson said.

At the time, customs officers did not have access to criminal records on their computer systems.

"We've got a lot of holes in our system," Thompson said. "There's not nearly as much cross-checking as there should be."

As to who could be held responsible for Rapati's easy entry into a country where police were looking for him, Thompson offered two suspects of his own.

"I would point at the federal government first and the provincial government second."

Rapati was eventually nabbed after the older sister of one of his alleged victims spotted him in church and alerted RCMP.

Christopher also questioned if RCMP searched Rapati's residence in Volendam (north of Amsterdam) for possible evidence after the man was picked up and charged in St. Albert.

"The St. Albert RCMP, in regards to the Rapati matter, investigated crimes which were all considered historical in nature from the outset of the case," Soltys wrote.

"The matters in hand occurred within the Alberta courts' jurisdiction and occurred in the 1970s – many years before Mr. Rapati moved to and resided in the Netherlands. There would have to be a link to evidence from the 1970s to justify a search warrant here or in Europe. Police to date have no evidentiary link to any of Rapati's past residences."

Soltys also wrote Christopher that "shortly after the recent arrest of Mr. Rapati, another victim has come forward and the investigation on this matter is continuing. It is believed that the media coverage of this matter influenced a 6th victim to come forward."

It was revealed that the initial charges Rapati faced came from four complainants who were members of the same family.

A preliminary hearing on the charges had already taken place shortly before Rapati fled to the Netherlands in 1993.

Court heard that the accused had befriended a recently separated woman with eight children in 1970. When the woman was working a night shift, Rapati would come over to help the children with homework.

A brother, 49, a sister, 47, and two other brothers described Rapati as a good friend of the family. But when their mother was at work, the abuse started with sexual touching and progressed from there.

A publication ban prevents the identification of the alleged victims.

One of the brothers took the stand telling the court that he was assaulted by Rapati dozens of times as a young teenager. He broke down when he testified the assaults caused him "a lot of shame and a lot of anguish."

The man also said he felt responsible for what happened to his sister and two brothers because he had introduced Rapati to his family. He first met Rapati in the park across from the family's home when he was 12. The St. Albert government gardener was installing flower boxes at the time.

He testified Rapati used to take him camping and hiking in the mountains, with weekend spent at a cabin.

It began with hugs and kisses, he told the court, and then progressed to sexual encounters that ranged from masturbation to oral sex to attempted anal intercourse.

"Did you want to have this relationship?" Crown prosecutor Greg Marchant asked him.

"No, not that way," came the man's reply, crying as he answered.

His sister testified that Rapati assaulted her for about four years, starting when she was 10. Rapati had asked her to promise to keep the assaults to herself, saying "this is our secret" and that he would "get her" if she told.

"Every time he came over, every chance he could get," she said. "It was constant."

The woman said that when she finally went to police in 1991 to report the abuse, she was so embarrassed she had to turn her back to the officer, looking instead at the wall when she gave her statement.

"It's not like I thought of him as a monster," she told the court. "He's a pedophile." As she testified, Rapati could be seen restraining a small laugh.

A second brother testified he went camping with Rapati and a group of boys when he was between eight and 11. He said Rapati played a "game" with him involving mutual fondling.

The youngest brother testified Rapati took him to his apartment when he was six or seven years old. There they engaged in mutual oral sex on three occasions during a half-year period.

The Crown concluded its case on the first day of the trial and Rapati's lawyer, Mona Duckett, said no defence evidence would be called.

In her closing arguments, Duckett said it was clear from the testimony of the older brother that the alleged abuse took place. However, she suggested that charges stemming from the abuse of the sister be dropped as the girl's testimony had changed over time.

"The evidence ... is not of the quality that sustains criminal conviction," Duckett stated.

The remark caused the girl to require aid from victim services staff in the courtroom.

Crown prosecutor Marchant acknowledged the length of time introduced by Rapati's absence from Canada caused problems for the case against him, but tempered that with the severity of the allegations.

"Memory is a funny thing. Remembering traumatic events is something most people can do," he said.

Marchant recommended a sentence of seven years in prison while Duckett recommended a term of about two years.

Decision

Justice Sterling Sanderman found Anton Paul Rapati guilty of buggery, indecent assault and gross indecency in relation to charges involving the older brother. He was acquitted of two charges of indecent assault and one count of gross indecency against the three younger siblings.

Sanderman ruled the evidence of the two middle children was stronger at trial than it had been at a preliminary hearing or in their initial police statements. Their testimony revealed a potential for accidental collaboration, he suggested.

He also acquitted Rapati of a sex charge involving a fourth sibling due to the evidence falling short.

Sentencing

Sanderman sentenced Rapati to a four-year prison term. However, Rapati received 10 months credit for time spent in pretrial custody in the Edmonton Remand Centre and 13 months credit for being elderly, leaving him with 25 months left to serve.

The senior's advanced age would cause him to have a difficult time in prison where he would be at the mercy of younger inmates.

Rapati was also ordered to submit his DNA to the National DNA Data Bank. He will be a monitored sex offender for the rest of his life.

In his ruling Sanderman noted that Rapati had "groomed" the older boy who was 12 when the abuse started.

The teen "endured the sexual acts because it was an avenue of escape that he believed he needed," Sanderman said.

"By enduring the abuse, he wasn't consenting to it. He was taken advantage of. Mr. Rapati held all of the power."

The abuse sarted with kissing and hugging and then progressed to more involved acts.

Sanderman noted the testimony of the victim, calling it "compelling" and "heart-wrenching," and said he obviously felt "grossly betrayed" by Rapati.

CBC Edmonton's Scott Fralick showing the statement on camera.

Outside court the family at the heart of the case broke a decades-long silence when they issued a handwritten statement.

We hope that by coming forward to the police and facing Anton Rapati for sexually abusing us for all those years, that this may save one child from becoming a victim or give other adults the courage to come forward if they were abused by anyone.

No one should have to suffer the fear and shame in silence as we have.

Edmonton Police Service documents – obtained by crime reporter Byron Christopher – reveal that a man, now 42, told police in 2005 that Rapati forced him to help bury the human remains of small children near the community north of Edmonton in the 1970s.

The allegations were first alluded to by Christopher when RCMP arrested Rapati in September 2008. Christopher has now shared the documents with The Last Link on the Left and Amsterdam's De Telegraaf newspaper.

The accusations come from a man who claims Rapati sodomised him when he was a young boy. Rapati is set to appear in court on May 4th, 2009 to answer to those charges. The full story of 'Philip' has been detailed earlier on this page.

De Telegraaf, with a circulation of about 800,000, reported the allegations in a full-page story published February 21st, 2009. The story was headlined: 'What A Ratbag.'

Reporter Johan van den Dongen brought Dutch readers up to date with details of Rapati's recent conviction on his first set of charges and revealed that the man may have been involved in the burial of human remains.

The newspaper reported that when Anton was 16, he became distraught when his parents served up his pet rabbit as supper. A relative of Anton – who told the story to van den Dongen – was unaware of a 1970s claim that Rapati had killed rabbits in front of a 6-year-old boy before ordering the terrified child to drop his trousers and briefs.

Travel documents indicated that in 1940 Rapati worked on a farm in then East Germany and was arrested by the Nazis in 1942.

The man first applied to live in New Zealand after World War II but settled instead in Canada in 1957. After he returned to the Netherlands to avoid charges of child sexual abuse brought against him in the early 1990s, Rapati made frequent visits to Romania and Germany.

De Telegraaf's van den Dongen quoted reporter Byron Christopher as saying the allegations of the burial of human body parts was the most shocking story he has unearthed during his 30-year career.

Christopher also told the reporter that if Philip made up the story – with such detail – he should immediately start another career and move to Hollywood.

In documents exclusive to The Last Link on the Left, Philip outlines a secret he has kept for more than thirty years: that he watched Anton Rapati bury at least one child just outside of St. Albert in the early 1970s.

RCMP say there's no record of any missing children in the Edmonton area from that time.

Philip claims Rapati told him the children were not from the Edmonton area – and that he'd never know where they were from.

An Edmonton Police Service summary of the allegations Philip made in a 13-page handwritten statement provides details of the allegations.

In the handwritten statement, Philip describes gruesome details of the contents of plastic garbage bags he helped Rapati carry to a spot near a river.

"I turned & saw the bag slumped over and I recall seeing a detached head partly out of the bag. I stopped & stared ..."

Philip writes of how Rapati "opened the bag a little more he took an arm partly out and made it wave at me, he made the hand move up and down to wave at me. He laughed at me ... "

Rapati told Philip that his fingerprints were all over the plastic bags and warned the young boy that should he tell the police anything police would think he was responsible and would charge him.

Philip said when he went to EPS with his story in 2005 he thought he might be charged himself.

After Philip filed his complaint with Edmonton police they referred the matter to St. Albert RCMP who told him they looked into his allegations but didn't find anything despite using ground penetrating radar. Police told Christopher they searched several locations.

When contacted by De Telegraaf's reporter for the February 21st story, Philip said he continues to stand by his accusations despite police assertions no remains were found. Philip told The Last Link on the Left he's relieved the allegations are now public.

Reaction to the de Telegraaf story was swift with scores of people leaving comments of anger and disgust on the paper's website. Many say they're outraged at both Dutch and Canadian authorities for allowing Rapati to travel so freely after being charged with raping children.

Reporter Christopher said Rapati's story was like a Rubik's cube of sexual deviancy.

The police documents Christopher supplied to The Last Link on the Left and De Telegraaf have been reproduced on this web page.

Details identifying Philip's true identity and the specific locations of where he alleges the burials took place have been blacked out by The Last Link on the Left.

Note that the page is extremely large in file size and may be slow in loading.

It should also be noted that Anton Rapati has not been charged with offering an indignity to a human body.

Earlier this month Rapati was given 25 months for buggery, indecent assault and gross indecency for attacks on children. The sentence was in addition to the time Rapati had spent at the Remand Center waiting trial. Justice Sterling Sanderman said he would have given Rapati a longer sentence had it not been for his age.

Rapati turned 86 on February 23rd, 2009 and will be eligible for parole next summer.

He will qualify for release into the community (likely a half-way house) on July 1st, 2010, according to Guy Campeau, National Director of Communications for Corrections Canada in Ottawa.

Excerpts of letter sent to 'Philip' from Crown prosecutor Gregory Marchant.