Child rapist’s application to change prison to house arrest denied – report

Convicted paedophile Bob Hewitt’s application to change his prison sentence to house arrest has been denied.

Hewitt, a former champion tennis player and coach, was convicted in 2015 on two counts of rape of two girls aged 12 and 13 and one count of indecent assault of a 17-year-old girl nearly 30 years ago. He has been spending time at St Albans Correctional Centre, close to his home at Addo in the Eastern Cape.

After serving only slightly more than two of his eight-year sentence for child rape served behind bars, Hewitt launched an application for early parole.

News24 reports that a lawyer representing Hewitt’s victims, Peter van Niekerk, confirmed that the convicted rapist’s application to convert the prison sentence to house arrest was denied.

When news of the application reached Women and Men Against Child Abuse (Wamaca), director Kevin Barbeau met with the survivors and van Niekerk of Eversheds Sutherland attorneys.

Barbeau indicated at the time that Wamaca would oppose Hewitt’s application “vehemently”.

When Hewitt appealed his sentence in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in 2016, SCA deputy president Justice Mandisa Maya took a dim view.

Maya said at the time: “The appellant, ironically a father of a young girl himself at the material time, exploited the complainants’ innocence and youth and forced them to submit to his wicked desires. He abused his position of authority and responsibility towards them and also abused the trust that their parents had placed in him when they put their young children in his care.

“Quite apart from the immediate physical and psychological trauma which the complainants suffered from the offences, there is also the lasting and devastating effect which the offences have had on their lives and their families.”

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