Man accused of sexual predatory behaviour loses defamation case

On the advice of a social worker, a woman reported her suspicions that a man was a sexual predator to the police. The accused man somehow obtained her confidential report and sued her for defamation. He won the case in the Ceres Magistrate’s Court, which ordered R50 000 be paid in damages.

But this was overturned on appeal. The Western Cape High Court found the woman was indemnified under the Children’s Act and had not made the report in bad faith. Two Western Cape High Court judges, hearing the appeal in the matter, ruled that the Ceres Magistrate’s Court was wrong in finding that she had defamed the man when she reported him to police.

Judge Hayley Slingers, with acting Judge Nolindi Nyati concurring, said the woman had been advised by a social worker to report her concerns to the police, that the Children’s Act demanded this and it granted indemnity to those who did so in good faith.

The judges also expressed concern about how the man had come to know of the report in a confidential police docket.

Slingers, who penned the ruling, said the woman owned a holiday home on a farm. The man was the farm manager and they had an “acrimonious relationship”. But she developed a bond with the family of a farm worker who resided there with his two children.

In September 2016, she contacted a local social worker and expressed concerns for the welfare of the family and, in particular, the children. The social worker said the woman was obliged to report her concerns to the police. The woman sent a letter to a police officer stationed at the local family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit.

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“The letter detailed disturbing allegations, including allegations of sexual deviancy and sexual predatory behaviour,” said Slingers.

The farm manager, in his defamation claim, said the letter contained false and wrongful statements. The woman, in her defence, said the statements were made in the discharge of her duty to protect minor persons and that she had been advised to do this by the social worker. She said she did not know if her allegations were true; this was for the police to ascertain.

At the trial, the farm manager refused to say where he had obtained the letter or how he had come to know about it. The woman’s legal representative had argued that it was unlawfully obtained and uplifted from the police docket. This has not been disputed nor denied.

“If it was unlawfully uplifted it would not only have been unethical but also illegal, rendering it potentially inadmissible,” Slingers said.

This article originally appeared on GroundUp, read original article here