Aussie handed 5 years in jail for sexual assault of 8 kids

A 73-YEAR-OLD Australian man living in Sea Point has pleaded guilty to 15 counts of sexual assault involving eight young children and has been sentenced in the Cape Town Regional Court after he entered into a plea agreement with the State.

Anthony Peter Freedendal was yesterday sentenced to five years in jail in terms of Section 276(1)(i) of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977, which means he will serve a sixth of his sentence – 10 months – behind bars before being eligible for parole. His name will be entered into the National Register for Sexual Offenders.

The State first withdrew 17 of the 32 counts Freedendal faced, before Magistrate Mbuso Msingaphantsi convicted him on the 15 counts of sexual assault he pleaded guilty to. His offences related to incidents involving three boys and five girls.

It emerged that Freedendal attended the same church as the victims and he would take the children, on separate occasions, to his home for “sleepovers” where he sexually assaulted them.

Freedendal has South African and Australian citizenship and has been involved in businesses locally and as a mining engineer in Australia.

Among the mitigating factors argued by his attorney William Booth, were that Freedendal had “contributed to underprivileged communities” at local churches and in improving facilities at underprivileged schools.

Freedendal was arrested on March 31 last year and, when he appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, had opted not to apply for bail – reserving his rights to bring the application at a later stage, after it emerged that there were outstanding warrants for his arrest in Australia on similar charges.

Booth read: “The accused is truly remorseful for his actions and apologises to all the complainants and their families for what he has done.”