Suspended term for principal who made toddlers perform sex act

A FORMER creche owner and principal who ordered two children to have sex and recorded it, will not go to prison.

The woman, who is not being named to protect the identities of the children involved, will be registered as a sex offender.

She pleaded guilty to a charge of compelled rape at the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court in Johannesburg yesterday.

In a statement read by her attorney Phum- lani Ntuli, the woman said on the day of the incident in February last year, a teacher told her that two children had been found having sex in a toilet on the crèche premises.

The principal called the boy, then two, and the girl, then five, to her office and asked them, in front of other teachers, to undress and re-enact what they had done.

She said she asked her granddaughter to record the demonstration.

Magistrate Gideon Schnetler asked: “There was no actual penetration, it was a simulation?” Prosecutor Jacqui Letsoalo confirmed this.

The principal showed the video to the parents of both children and told them that their children were not welcome at the Johannesburg creche any more. The girl’s parents were upset the teacher had asked their daughter to simulate what she had allegedly done and they complained to the police.

Ntuli asked the court to be lenient on the woman, who is turning 70 later this year.

He said she was remorseful and did not have any previous convictions.

After finding her guilty, Schnetler said: “She should have known better than to instruct two minor kids who were under her care to perform a sexual act.”

Schnetler said he could see the accused did not know what to do when she found out what the children had done. He also saw she “didn’t want to order the demonstration and record it out of lust or anything like that”.

In accordance with an agreement reached between the principal, the prosecution and the children’s parents, she was given a prison sentence of five years but it was entirely suspended for three years.

The conditions for the sentence included that she will be listed in the National Register for Sex Offenders and she may not work with children again.

The court confirmed that the creche had been closed down since the incident.

After proceedings, the granddaughter of the principal said she suffered ill health and would be unable to speak to the media.