AN Albersville man (65) has been convicted of sexually assaulting two girls when they were three and four years old respectively.
The girls, who are now 17 and 20 years old, were repeatedly sexually assaulted between 2000 and 2007 by a man known to them, while living in Palmview.
The man was arrested on July 25 last year, after a letter written by one of the girls was discovered by her parents.
The man cannot be named as he is related to one of the girls. He made several court appearances and pleaded guilty to the charges.
On Tuesday this week, Chief Magistrate Johan Bester sentenced the man to five years’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for a period of five years.
He has to pay an amount of R25 000 to each of the girls for counselling and therapy sessions.
In the teen’s victim impact statement (VIS) she said her life had been ruined. She said she had not attended school for two years and could not see herself going back.
The 20 year-old said her parents would leave her at the man’s house while they went to work, as he was a close family friend.
She said she had grown up living in fear. “In high school I had flashbacks of what happened and it affected my work,” she said.
The abuse continued for seven years.
She explained that when her mother was in hospital in 2007 she had to stay at the man’s house.
“One day he took me to school and asked me if I had remembered what happened. I told him to stop the car and he did not. I jumped out of the moving vehicle,” she said.
Both cases were investigated by Detective Sergeant Britt Edwards from the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit in Port Shepstone.
