Retired headmaster admits to abusing boys 32 years ago
A retired Eastern Cape school principal has admitted to sexually assaulting two schoolboys more than 30 years ago, after one of them confronted him in an e-mail.
“What I did was sickening and your anger and sadness is well directed,” Richard Second, 61, told the man, now an architect, who was a 12-year-old boarder when the assault happened.
Police are now investigating a case of indecent assault and sodomy against Second, who lives in Mossel Bay after retiring in February as principal of Queen’s College Boys’ Primary School in Queenstown.
His alleged offences were committed when he was an art teacher at Dale College Boys’ Primary in King William’s Town 32 years ago.
“You came to my bed that one night and then took me to your room and sexually violated and raped me,” said Second’s former pupil, who now lives in the US.
Second replied: “I acknowledge my crime. I must face the consequences of my actions and will be prepared to do that.”
According to a Sunday Times article, although Second admits in an e-mail that the victim’s account is “very accurate” he told the newspaper that he had not raped the boy, but admitted to fondling him and another pupil.
The victim, who had until recently believed that Second had died, has now laid a charge with police. Second admitted sexually abusing another pupil who was living in another hostel, saying “the relationship was more intense”.
According to the Sunday Times article, Brendan Raasch, chair of the governing body of Queen’s College Boys’ Primary School, said: “The school will institute a heightened awareness campaign and past and current pupils and parents will be provided with contact de- tails.” The same article said Dale College Boys’ Primary School referred queries to the provincial education department, whose spokesperson Loyiso Pulumani was quoted as saying the department was “shocked and disappointed at this shameful revelation”.
Second, a father of two, could be among the first alleged sex offenders in the country to be prosecuted for a sexual assault that took place several decades ago.
The Constitutional Court ruled in June that sexual assault offences would no longer become unenforceable after 20 years.
You came to my bed that night and took me to your room and violated me