Sex crimes ‘epidemic’
FRANKEL 8: ‘IT’S NOT ABOUT US BUT ABOUT OTHERS WHO HAVE BEEN ABUSED’
Group going to court to try and overturn 20-year prescription clause.
Shane Rothquel has a bleak view of the horrifying cases of sexual abuse which emerged over the past 10 days. “It’s not a cancer, it’s an epidemic,” he says.
Rothquel is one of the eight people, now adults, who allege they were sexually abused as children over a 10-year period 30 years ago by billionaire businessperson Sydney Frankel, who died this year.
He is saddened about the brutal death of Karobo Mokoena, the rape of an eight-year-old girl by three Grade 7 schoolboys, the rape of a pregnant woman by 11 men, the rape and murder of three-year-old Courtney Pieters by someone known to her and the rape and murder of 19-year-old Sinoxolo Mafevuka, allegedly by her cousins.
He empathises because he is a victim of sexual abuse.
The group of eight is going to court on Monday in an attempt to overturn the law, which stipulates a 20-year prescription clause on sex crimes.
This means that, if charges of sexual abuse are not brought within 20 years of the event, then they fall away.
Rothquel says that the case is not about the “Frankel 8”, as the litigants have become known.
It is also about the many others who still face a long road before they are ready to disclose their abuse.
“It’s a really sad state of affairs to even try and bring this kind of action, where we have guaranteed protection for children in the constitution and none of that has happened,” said Rothquel.
“To my mind, this is just one small brick in the wall which needs to be taken out to allow society to recover from what’s going on because it’s not us eight, or what happened at Parktown Boys, this is happening almost every day in almost every family and we’re not talking about it.”
One of the horror crimes which have emerged and which involved abuse by people who are relatives or in positions of trust around children is the 2014 rape and murder of four-year-old Jasmin-Lee Pretorius by her uncle, Sarel du Toit, who was found guilty on both charges.
Former tennis star Bob Hewitt was convicted on two counts of rape and one of indecent assault of three girls between 18 and 30.
If advocate Anton Katz, on behalf of the litigants and NGO Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA), is successful in the High Court in Johannesburg on Monday, the ruling will have to be confirmed by the Constitutional Court.
If this happens, it doesn’t mean the criminal charges will be reinstated against Frankel, but a pending civil case will be strengthened, said Miranda Friedmann of WMACA.
Dr Karen Muller, of The Child Witness Institute, said a recent study by a former special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US found 51% of sex offenders were “situational”.
In other words, they were family members and had, on average, two victims each.
“Paedophiles make up other 49%. –
A recent study by a former special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US found 51% of sex offenders were ‘situational’. In other words, they were family members, and had on average two victims each.
Dr Karen Muller The Child Witness Institute
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