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Johannesburg - A serial child rapist who cannot be rehabilitated will not be able to work with children for the remainder of his life as his name has been placed on the National Child Protection Register and the National Register for Sex Offenders.
A Pretoria Regional Court magistrate found last week that the 36-year-old man from Mooiplaas, east of Pretoria, would not have the right to apply for the removal of his name from the registers once released from prison, as he would pose a severe danger to children.
The man, serving a 20-year sentence, may not be named, to protect the identity of his niece, one of his many victims. It is the duty of the court to explain to an accused the consequences of their name being placed in the registers. Magistrate Graham Travers did not have time during sentencing to do so, and last week called back the accused.
Travers explained to the man that the National Child Protection Register had two parts - A and B. He told the man his name would be in part A as he’d been found guilty of the abuse of a child that included sexual abuse (rape). His name would also be added to part B of the register because he had been found unsuitable to work with children.
“Any person convicted of murder, attempted murder, rape, indecent assault or assault with the intention to do grievous bodily harm with regard to a child is deemed unsuitable to work with children. You have been convicted of multiple rapes and therefore the court must find you unsuitable to work with children,” Travers said.
In 1997 the man was found guilty of 10 counts of rape and sentenced to five years in jail. He was released on parole in 2001 and committed his next rape soon after. He was rearrested in 2002 after allegedly raping 11 girls aged between five and 10.
In July last year Travers found him guilty on two counts of rape and sentenced him to serve 20 years behind bars. He was denied leave to appeal and Travers said that the accused could not be rehabilitated.
This was after a Weskoppies clinical psychologist testified that the man lacked cognitive insight, had the mental capacity of a seven-year-old
and could not be rehabilitated.
Any person whose name has been entered into either of the registers is not allowed to be employed in any position of authority, supervision or care of a child. Such a person may also not become a foster parent, kinship caregiver, or an adoptive parent of a child.
Any institution working with children, including schools, has the right to find out if a potential or current employee’s name is in the register. If it is, an employer has the right to refuse or terminate the services of such a person.
Pretoria News
