Family members slapped with life terms for neglect and sexual assault of minor children

Six family members including two grandparents who were also foster parents, have been sentenced to a combined 16 life terms and 110 years in prison for their involvement in the rape, sexual grooming and sexual assault of minor children in their care.

The 70 and 69-year-old foster parents appeared in the Pretoria North magistrate’s court on Thursday, along with their four co-accused.

The family were finally sentenced after more than a decade for the crimes committed between 2005 and 2010 against three minor children, aged between four and nine years old.

Neglect and sexual assault

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said the family members faced several charges.

 “Some of the charges they were convicted of were rape, indecent assault, compelled rape, compelled sexual assault, witness sexual acts, sexual grooming as well as child abuse and neglect.”

“This was discovered after the six-year-old foster child was taken for school readiness assessment where she disclosed to the educational psychologist that she was being sexually assaulted by her foster parents.  After receiving this information, the psychologist reported the matter to the police,” Mahanjana said.

Mahanjana added that during the investigation it was found that the six accused were sexually assaulting both their two foster children and their four biological children. 

“The six were arrested in December 2010 at their residence at Hammanskraal and Bultfontein and the children were then taken to a place of safety.”

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Court

Mahanjana said all the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges, but the state was able to provide evidence to prove that the six indeed sexually assaulted the children. 

“In their victim impact statement, the children told the court that what happened to them has affected and continues to affect them as they now find it hard to trust people and maintain relations. They further told the court that they still suffer from the trauma caused by the six.”

“In aggravation of sentence, the prosecutors who dealt with the matter Advocate Cornelia Harmzen and Marie Jonker told the court that the six showed no remorse for their actions. They subjected their own children to the scrutiny of the court where they had to testify using the intermediary services and also relive their trauma,” she said.

Sentencing

The court sentenced the grandparents to 12 life sentences and an additional 95 years’ imprisonment, while two other relatives, who are a couple, were sentenced to four life terms and 15 years’ direct imprisonment each.

Mahanjana said the other two relatives, who are also a couple, were given a five years wholly suspended sentence and three years of correctional supervision.

“In his sentence the magistrate Pieter Nel said the six committed serious offences against their children over a long period of time.  Such crimes will surely leave a long impact on the victims and therefore, the sentence given was appropriate.”  

“The magistrate ordered that the sentences should run concurrently, that their names be added to the national register for sexual offenders, and they be declared unfit to possess a firearm,” Mahanjana added.

Warning

Mahanjana said the NPA welcomed the sentence and hoped that it will send a strong message that such crimes would not be tolerated. 

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