‘I still see his bigness,’ alleged victim says at Hewitt rape trial
IT has taken 20 years, but Suellen Sheehan has finally faced two demons: seeing her alleged rapist, former international tennis ace Bob Hewitt, in court and picking up a tennis racket again.
On Friday, a frail Hewitt, 74, appeared in the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court after an arrest warrant was issued because of his repeated absence from court on previous dates.
Sheehan, 44, is one of three women who claim they were raped or indecently assaulted by Hewitt in the 1980s and 1990s, when he was their tennis coach.
The girls were aged between 12 and 16 at the time.
Sheehan has agreed to be identified.
In the dock on Friday, Hewitt, who lives in Addo in the Eastern Cape, turned to the public gallery and stared directly at an emotional Sheehan.
“When I looked at him, I still see his bigness. I was little and he was big,” she said outside the court.
It is this power dynamic — of a sports coach over his or her charges — that often leads to sexual abuse, said Johannesburg sports psychologist Leon van Niekerk.
He said abuse might include promising an athlete a position in a team in exchange for sex, touching their private parts or making inappropriate comments.
And opportunities for doing so abound in relationships in which athletes and coaches spend many hours alone together, including away from home on tour.
Coaches also got away with touching their students, he said, for example, when guiding them to complete certain moves.
Hewitt is also accused of raping a 13-year-old in 1981 at a hotel in Sun City, North West, and indecently assaulting a 16year-old several times by touching her breasts and rubbing his penis against her body.
These details form part of the indictment that Hewitt received in court on Friday.
He was also informed that his 10-day trial would start in the High Court in Johannesburg in February next year.
His three alleged victims are on the state’s witness list.
In 2011, Sheehan came forward with the claim that she was raped by the doubles champion in 1982 at a tennis clubhouse in Boksburg North.
The move cost her dearly — her parents branded her a liar and her 21-year-old son cut off contact with her as a result.
Sheehan, who was ranked in the top five under-18 South African tennis players at the time of the alleged rape, stopped playing professionally at the age of 24 after a back injury. She did not play again after her recovery, partly because of the alleged rape, she said.
But she started playing tennis
This power dynamic — of a sports coach over his or her charges — often leads to sexual abuse
again socially two months ago. “Part of the healing is to go back and play,” she said.
Another of Hewitt’s former tennis pupils, Karin Stelzer, 47, who has not made any claims against the coach, was also in court on Friday.
After Hewitt’s appearance, Stelzer said she was shocked to see the once “strong, determined and powerful man” was now an old man.
She continued to be coached by Hewitt at a time when rumours of his allegedly questionable behaviour with female students started making the rounds. As a cautionary measure, her mother always accompanied her.
Van Niekerk believed one in five male athletes was subjected to “serious and unacceptable behaviour” by male coaches.
He has researched the topic and is now looking at the prevalence of cases of male coaches and female athletes, which he believes is much higher.
Van Niekerk said parents tended to “ignore” their children’s disclosure of sexual abuse by their coaches because they had a “trusting relationship” with them.
That is why athletes opt to disclose abuse only when they are older because they are then much stronger.