A non-profit child protection organisation, Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA) has strongly criticised the probation officers tasked in the Park Town Boys’ High sexual assault case.
In a statement, the Founding Director of WMACA, Miranda Jordan, wrote “WMACA are extremely upset at the recent events that have resulted in secondary and tertiary abuse for victims, as well as delays in the sentencing of Collan Rex, who hails from Roodepoort.
Read the initial article here:
https://roodepoortrecord.co.za/2017/05/12/alleged-paedophile-teacher-a-roodepoort-resident/
“Despite the fact that Rex was convicted in September on 144 counts of sexual assault and 12 counts of common assault of 23 pupils between the ages of 13 and 16, the sentencing proceedings of this former Parktown Boys’ assistant water polo coach have been held up by probation officers who have been utterly derelict in the performance of their duties – WMACA is outraged, not only that Government-appointed probation officers (social workers) are once again holding-up the finalisation of a trial involving the sexual abuse of children (as they did earlier this year in the Balaclava rapists’ case) but also their at unprofessional behaviour when interviewing the young boys involved in this case”.
Jordan went on to say that, “Apart from not being present in court and the probationary report not being finished and presented on time, the way in which they have gone about gathering information has been extremely unprofessional. It was recently documented that a social worker/ probation officer could not find the residence of one of the victims, asking instead to meet in a public mall, arriving late and carrying on with a personal conversation on her phone, resulting in the victim running away – a show of incompetence that led to secondary trauma for an already victimised child.
“WMACA demands that the issues around secondary abuse like this be addressed by the courts, and we hope that the relatively new Minister of Social Development, Susan Shabangu, continues exerting the pressure she has promised after [the recent] media coverage to get the report submitted soon. We would like to see sensitivity training for probation officers/ social workers put on the table to prevent such shameful and unnecessary trauma from happening again.
“WMACA will be present again in court on 27 November and hopes to see sentencing proceedings finalised,” concluded Jordan.
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