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The accused in the child porn case leave the Pretoria North Magistrate’s court after a brief apperance. Photo: Phill Magakoe
A Pretoria family believed to have perpetrated monstrous sexual crimes against children in their care will be “free to enjoy their Christmas and New Year” while their traumatised victims live in limbo.
Anti-child abuse groups are angry about the delays in the case against nine members of the family, who face more than 100 charges of raping and sexually assaulting children. They are also livid that eight are out on bail.
The family members allegedly used the children – the youngest of whom is aged just four – to make pornographic movies.
“They are going to enjoy their Christmas and their New Year, and who knows what they will be up to?” Vincentia Dlamini, the advocacy spokeswoman for Women and Men Against Child Abuse, said yesterday. “They could be continuing to molest children.”
This week, nine members of the family, aged between 26 and 61, appeared in the Pretoria North Regional Court where Magistrate Pieter Nel postponed the case to January 16 because some of the accused said they did not have legal representation.
Nel told the court that a trial date would be set next month.
The accused – four couples, including the grandparents of the children, as well as the unmarried son of one of the couples – were arrested in December 2010.
They face more than 100 charges of raping and sexually assaulting the children, sexually grooming children, exposing children to pornography and benefiting from child pornography.
Last month, eight members of the family were granted R15 000 bail each when they appealed to the High Court in Pretoria, after a Pretoria North regional magistrate earlier refused them bail.
Dlamini is adamant that the initial decision to deny the accused bail should have stood. “They’ve been charged with serious offences against children… With the state, you sometimes feel like they are really failing kids. We are exposing children to possible rapists, molesters and child pornographers.
“The message now is they can continue with their lives and go Christmas shopping. We don’t know what they’re capable of. With one charge of rape we are totally against them getting bail, but with so many charges it’s ridiculous.”
Dlamini’s organisation is involved in extensive therapy with one of the victims.
“The children have got to continue with their lives. They’ve been through so much trauma.
“They are going through extensive therapy. Kids sometimes shut down and don’t want to be a part of this, they forget and don’t make good witnesses.”
She dismissed the claims of the lack of legal representation as a delaying tactic.
“Everybody knows they’ve got a right to legal representation. They knew this from the beginning.”
Dr Shaheda Omar, assistant director of the Teddy Bear Clinic which has worked with victims of the alleged abuse, is disappointed at the slow pace.
“The assessments were done swiftly at the request of the court and the police, and we delivered on time.
“We are disappointed that the system is failing these children again.
“If you look at their lives, they have been disrupted in more than one way. There is no closure for them, no moving forward.
They are in limbo. This is compounding and delaying the trauma.
“Children are not like fruit that you can cut open and see what is going on inside of them. They may block out, disassociate, or repress for various reasons… There is no closure for them. They are confused.
“But the accused can continue with their lives. We don’t know to what extent their goings-on have been perpetuated. Have they gone more underground?”
The family, she claims, is the “tip of the iceberg in a sophisticated network” producing child porn.
“If you look at the level of functioning (of the accused), these are not the super-intelligent. There are other individuals involved. They were just a vessel.”
Omar maintains that when children are failed by their families and their schools, it should be the responsibility of the justice system to ensure their protection and safety.
“Some of the children may feel as if they are responsible. They may believe that they have done bad things and that is why they were removed from the care of their parents.
“They feel bad, unworthy of love, dirty and ugly. A mark of damaged goods has been left on these children.” – Saturday Star
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Outrage as child porn suspects freed