'Surprise evidence' questioned in rape trial of HIV-positive teacher

28 November 2014 - 14:24 By Penelope Mashego
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The trial of an HIV-positive teacher accused of raping two boys has been postponed until next year to ensure that "surprise evidence" does not impact the fairness of the trial.

Magistrate Audrey Mpofu postponed the trial in the Protea Magistrate's Court in Soweto on Thursday after defence lawyer Jaco Strydom complained about being surprised when prosecutor Carina Coetzee submitted the findings of a preliminary DNA report to the court. Strydom said Coetzee had only given him the report the day before, and this was not the first time he was "surprised" during this trial.

“This can have consitutional implications. Everyone has the right to a fair trial,” Mpofu said, before postponing the trial and ordering the prosecution to hand over all relevant evidence to the defence.

“We would have proceeded and this would have come up on appeal."

A nine-year-old boy last month told the court the 44-year-old man raped him at Maponya Mall after offering him a lift home after soccer practice. He said the man gave him R2 and an ice-cream afterwards.

Another 11-year-old boy told the court that the teacher had also raped him on school premises last year. The teacher also faces an attempted murder charge in relation to the rape of the 11-year-old because he knowingly exposed the boy to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

The mother of the 11-year-old boy expressed disappointment at the postponement.

“I am devastated. My life is at a standstill. Emotionally I'm not well, my child is not well,” she said, adding that they would like to move on with their lives once the teacher has been "punished".

She said she was worried about her son because members of the teacher's family have followed her and watched her when she took her son to the Teddy Bear Clinic for counselling.

The teacher's family denied these claims. They said the teacher is “a self-made hard worker, he has a wife and children and there has never been a problem before”.

Strydom yesterday asked police Sergeant Jeannette Maluleke whether she tampered with the rape kit containing evidence in the rape of one of the boys.

Maluleke said she only signed the kit with all the physical evidence into custody and passed it on to investigating officer Warrant Officer Wilson Maswanganyi without opening it.

“I didn't tamper with it, because in doing so I would be destroying evidence,” she said.

The trial was adjourned until January next year.

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