SCA upholds 12-year sentence for predator swim coach

The courts have ruled that a Pretoria swimmer and one-time coach who continued to pursue an underage schoolgirl in the face of a protection order, ultimately developing a sexual relationship with her, got what he deserved when he was jailed for statutory rape and violating a protection order.

The Supreme Court of Appeal, in Bloemfontein, this week dismissed the man’s bid to have his sentence of four years’ imprisonment set aside and replaced with house arrest.

His legal team argued that the man had “had no malicious intent, but rather inappropriately fell in love with a girl, much too young for him”.

But said Judge Fikile Mokgohloa in handing down her ruling, there was nothing before the court to suggest he had “accepted the seriousness of his conduct and intended to make such amends, as lay within his power”.

Outlining the case’s history, Judge Mokgohloa explained the man – then 19 – and the girl – then 12 – became friends in 2006. He was employed as a sports coach at the elite private college in Pretoria where she was schooling; and both of them swimmers, they would sometimes train together.

“Although their friendship started off as being purely platonic, it progressed into an intimate one which included sexual intercourse,” said Judge Mokgohloa.

The seven-year age gap between the pair bothered the girl’s parents and in 2007, they secured a domestic violence protection order barring the man from having any contact with their daughter. But the pair continued their relationship in secret.

Eventually, the girl’s parents grew suspicious and hired a private investigator whose investigations brought to light the clandestine contact the two had been maintaining and led to the man being arrested and charged.

“I regard the sentence as appropriate,” Judge Mokgohloa said this week of the trial court’s decision.

“[She] looked up to [him] as her swimming role model. Aside from their age difference, [he] was employed by her school to coach swimming. [He] was in a position of authority and trust with regard to her.”

She also pointed out that the girl’s parents had “begged [him] to stop any contact”.

“He seduced her into acceding to his requests for sexual intercourse, by giving her a ring to assure her that this was no fleeting relationship,” she  added.

She referenced evidence from a probation officer, who thought house arrest with a suspended sentence would be suitable censure for violating the protection order but said the man had not taken responsibility for the statutory rape.

“The probation officer also stated that the [man], because he did not take responsibility for his actions, did not have real regret and remorse for what had happened,” she said.

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