Teacher laughs at sex charges

Defence claims alleged abuse was ‘fatherly’ affection

RAPE and sexual assault-accused former teacher Neil le Roux laughed silently while his legal counsel did their best to frame his alleged abuse of a schoolgirl in such a way as to imply it was nothing more than the “safe haven” of fatherly affection.

He is on trial for sexual assault and sexually grooming the girl, raping and sexually assaulting a student teacher and sexually assaulting another student teacher.

The girl, who was 13 and in Grade 7 at a top East London school when he allegedly began to sexually groom her, endured a second day of gruelling cross-examination by her former teacher’s defence advocate Neil Schoeman in the East London Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Her testimony is that between 2014 and 2016, Le Roux kissed her three times, once with his tongue, put his hand on her thigh when he was driving her home, kissed her neck, licked her ear and repeatedly embraced her with his head on her chest and his hands on her buttocks.

She said he also manipulated her emotionally by telling her to push her boundaries.

The alleged abuse ended in April 2016 when a teacher inadvertently saw Le Roux embrace the girl in his classroom after giving her an extra Afrikaans lesson after hours.

Questioning the articulate girl, who is now 17 and in Grade 11, Schoeman tried to establish whether the teacher had licked the girl’s ear or put his tongue in her ear, saying her testimony differed in this respect from her police statement.

Seated in the dock and taking meticulous notes, Le Roux laughed to himself and shook his head.

This as the girl, who was being questioned in camera, took pains to describe exactly what had happened to her at the hands of the man who was entrusted by the girl’s mother to give her child lifts home after school on some afternoons.

“He [Le Roux] will say he leaned over playfully and licked your ear as a joke, but your version is that he put his tongue in your ear and said you smell nice.”

“It felt very weird,” said the girl. “It felt gross. But I didn’t know what to say. How do you tell someone you trust and who says they love you that you don’t want this?”

Schoeman also questioned her about the three times Le Roux had kissed her, arguing the kisses had simply been to say goodbye or to congratulate her on doing well in her extra-curricular Afrikaans lesson.

But the girl said after the second kiss when he put his tongue in her mouth, she told Le Roux she was not comfortable when he kissed her.

“He told me I was being silly and that the kiss was something he would give his daughter.”

She said Le Roux had told her to confide in him before she went to her mother.

“I think you misunderstood him. He was saying he was a safety net to you. Like a father to a daughter,” said Schoeman.

The trial has been postponed to April 11. —