A financial services professional in Hilton is accused of grooming and abusing women for more than a decade.
Picture: iStock
In what could become one of the country’s most shocking examples of gender-based violence, a KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Midlands man stands accused of more than a decade of sexual misconduct involving women and girls.
More than 44 alleged victims came forward days after private investigator Brad Nathanson appealed for information on social media as part of a developing investigation.
Victims range from children to older women
The Citizen has seen a selection of responses the investigator received. All of the accounts name the same financial services professional in Hilton, KZN. Nathanson said he has so far established that the youngest alleged victim was 11 at the time of her encounter with the man, with the oldest reporting an encounter at the age of 70.
“The man was primarily focused on underage girls though,” said Nathanson, adding that many of the alleged victims were groomed and abused from a single posh private school in the area. He said the man was also allegedly banned from at least two gyms for approaching children.
Contact made via social media
The man allegedly contacted young girls via social media channels, first starting with Mxit and BlackBerry Messenger in 2014 and then, as the years progressed, graduating to Instagram and WhatsApp.
“He’s been going for so long that his methods have evolved along with technology,” Nathanson said. “But it hasn’t stopped.”
Nathanson also questioned how the man allegedly obtained the contact details of so many girls.
“He must have someone on the lookout for him,” he said. “How on earth could a man have access to phone numbers, names or social media profiles of underage learners any other way?”
Explicit photos sent to victims
Some of the women who responded to Nathanson’s call said that “getting a dick pic from the man” was almost a rite of passage for Grade 8 girls.
“One of the little girls that spoke to me said that if you arrived at the school in Grade 8 and you did not receive a dick pic, then there was something wrong with you,” said Nathanson. “She referred to it as a welcome to the school.”
The Citizen has seen the alleged genital image as well as accounts from women who said they received unsolicited sexually explicit material from the man while they were still children.
One woman said she was 15, and turning 16, when the man, then 18, obtained her BlackBerry Messenger PIN from someone else. She alleged that he repeatedly sent her unsolicited sexually explicit photographs and videos.
Another said she was in Grade 7 and 8 when the man allegedly sent her numerous pictures and videos of his penis through BBM and Mxit. She said there was not always a conversation beforehand. Sometimes the material simply arrived.
A third woman alleged she was in Grade 6 or 7 when he obtained her Mxit details and sent her an unsolicited picture of his penis.
Another former pupil said the man would sometimes start with a simple “hi”. Once he could see she had read the message, she alleged, an explicit photograph would follow. She also alleged that he repeatedly asked her to have phone sex with him.
The alleged behaviour was not confined to children.
One woman said she was around 45 when the man contacted her several years ago. She alleged an ordinary conversation turned sexual before he asked whether she wanted to “be naughty”, repeatedly propositioned her and eventually sent photographs of his penis. She blocked him.
Former female colleagues have also contacted Nathanson, alleging inappropriate communication through Instagram and the use of disappearing messages.
How he allegedly groomed teenager
But it was an audit trail on a 15-year-old girl’s phone that initially led Nathanson to the man.
He interviewed the teenager about allegations against the man and said she had been involved in a relationship with the adult for more than a year before it was discovered by her caregivers.
Nathanson said investigators downloaded messages between the pair.
“She believed that she was his one and only,” he said. “He groomed her in such a way.”
He said the messages, some highly explicit, allegedly showed a man who was intensely jealous and possessive over the child. “He made her believe that she was his special girl. He didn’t want anybody else with her. He didn’t want anybody else to have her.”
There was also an alleged sexual relationship between the man and the teenager.
Case fell through the cracks
Nathanson said the man had allegedly carried on with impunity for years. His investigation has now also raised questions about what adults and institutions may have known about the allegations.
He said a teacher at the private school received complaints involving young girls as far back as 2017 and took the matter to school management. Nathanson alleged that nothing meaningful happened for about three months before the teacher eventually went to the police herself and opened a case.
He said the investigating officer subsequently died and the officer’s dockets were redistributed. Nathanson alleges this particular case then fell through the cracks.
“I requested that the docket be resurrected,” he said. “We are redoing the statements of those girls because they weren’t particularly well done and the teacher did them herself.”
Nathanson said the women were being interviewed again and that the 2017 case would hopefully be reopened.
However, Nathanson said the immediate task was to give women who had remained silent an opportunity to speak and to ensure their accounts were formally recorded.
“We want to be creating a safe space for women to come forward,” he said. “We want women to know that they are going to be heard.”
