A former school teacher, 34 years old, from St Mary’s Diocesan School for Girls in Pretoria was granted R10,000 bail by the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court, sitting at Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre.
The former teacher is facing charges of rape, sexual assault and sexual grooming.
It is alleged that the former teacher, who cannot be named at this stage, was employed as a teacher at St Mary’s Diocesan School for Girls between 2017 and 2018.
During that time, he raped, sexually assaulted, and sexually groomed a Grade 5 learner at the school during swimming lessons and when he was giving her extra classes.
At the time of the alleged incidents, the learner was between 10 and 11 years old, said Lumka Mahanjana, National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson.
It is alleged that the child only realised that what was done to her was wrong after she attended sexual offences classes in 2019. It is said that the child started to misbehave, and self-harm by cutting herself.
After the mother noticed the behaviour charges and enquired from her what was wrong, the child then disclosed to the mother what had happened.
The mother took the child to a social worker in 2019, and she was later referred to a forensic social worker last year.
A criminal case was opened with the police in Cape Town, and was transferred to Brooklyn Police Station.
Through his attorney, the former teacher asked to be released on bail, because he has no previous conviction nor pending cases. He told the court that he co-operated with the state by handing himself over to the police, when he realised that the police were looking for him. He handed in his passport.
The state however opposed his bail application and told the court that should the former teacher be convicted; he would face a long jail term. It was said that the former teacher was a flight risk, since he had no assets in South Africa.
According to the prosecution, it would be difficult to trace him should he decide to skip the country since he is also unemployed.
In delivering the judgment the court granted him bail with conditions that he should report to his closest police station three times a week, and that he should not interfere directly or indirectly with state witnesses.
The matter was postponed to March 27 for further investigations.
Pretoria News
zelda.venter@inl.co.za