Coach appears in court on sexual assault charges

A PARKTOWN Boys’ High water polo coach appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court yesterday‚ where he faces charges of sexually assaulting pupils at the school.

The man, 22, faces multiple charges relating to sexual assault and assault, and is out on bail of R3 000. The case was postponed to July 11.

The matter first came to light last year when the school discovered CCTV footage showing the man allegedly touching a pupil inappropriately. More than 20 pupils have come forward since. Martin Pelders, of an organisation called Matrix Men‚ which offers support to sexually abused men and boys‚ attended the court proceedings.

“[We have] research that dates back to 2004 which found, out of 136 000 boys, that 44% of boys are raped in this country by the age of 18,” he said.

“We hear of very few cases where anything actually goes to court and often when they do go to court‚ the case is botched.

“We have a huge issue with the number of boys in this country that have been assaulted.”

Pelders said cases of boys being sexually assaulted were often swept under the rug.

“It was only by accident that this case was brought to our attention‚ [otherwise] it would have slipped under the radar.

“We know that [the] perpetrators are serial perpetrators and they will [do it again].”

Prosecutor Colleen Ryan requested the postponement in the case for investigations to be completed.