Child sex accused claims he was blackmail victim

A KNYSNA businessman accused of child rape took the stand in the George Magistrate’s Court yesterday, denying all 79 charges.

Adrian Wilson-Forbes claimed he had been trapped in a web of extortion by an alleged victim.

The charges range from child rape to abduction and creating child pornography involving children as young as eight

His lawyer, Oliff D’Olivera, applied for his discharge on the basis that there was insufficient evidence for a conviction, but the application was dismissed.

Wilson-Forbes went on to testify that one of his alleged victims had held him up at knifepoint at Herold’s Bay last year. The youth forced him to pose for photographs in compromising positions with a naked eightyear-old girl.

He claimed the incident was orchestrated not for sex, but so that the complainant could use the pictures to blackmail him.

Wilson-Forbes said he never had sex with the child, but “saved her life” by posing for the photographs as he was convinced the youth would kill them both if he did not comply.

He said he met the youth, who was then 11 years old, five years ago in George.

Wilson-Forbes said that after the alleged incident last year, the teenager had demanded R50 000 in exchange for the evidence but had settled for R3 000.

The trial continues today.