Experienced perpetrators looked for 'easy targets', like abused children
Sexual predators use a calculated strategy to groom their young victims over a period of time before they pounce.
This shocking pattern of priming child and adolescent victims can take place over weeks and sometimes years before the perpetrator eventually commits the act of sexual abuse.
According to research conducted by a local magistrate, among those most vulnerable are children and teens from single-parent homes who crave attention.
Grooming, a relatively unknown crime in South Africa which is also punishable with a prison sentence in terms of the Sexual Offences Act, was highlighted at the 2009 KwaZulu-Natal Child Law Conference by Magistrate Deon Minnie this week.
"I've dealt with cases where the accused goes into a relationship with the child's mother in order to get to the child. That is the reality," he said.
Minnie completed a master's degree dissertation on grooming earlier this year, and has extensive experience in presiding over sexual offence cases.
Some of the elements in the process include perpetrators:
Another stage in the grooming process may include non-physical contact during which pornography and sexual topics are gradually introduced, accompanied by alcohol and drugs, Minnie said.
Eventually, the perpetrator's efforts pay off and he molests - at this stage - a consenting victim.
The child's resistance to the abuse will have been lowered and he or she is conditioned for it by the trusting relationship the abuser has built up.
Minnie said the offender then worked at keeping the child complicit in the abuse and ensuring it remained a secret.
He said experienced perpetrators looked for "easy targets", like abused children or loners who had no friends.
New technology has also made it easier for them to meet potential victims. "It also offers anonymity. In a chatroom he can start testing a child's boundaries and see what kind of child he's dealing with.
"The risk of detection is very low. Then he'll start making lewd suggestions.
"If a child responds in a negative way, he may disappear and re-enter the chatroom with a different identity.
"On Facebook, for instance, the offender can identify what the child looks like and (could have) some of the mother's details. It's very dangerous."
Minnie said in his experience boys and girls - of mostly 13 years and older - appeared to be targeted equally.
National co-ordinator for Childline, Joan van Niekerk, said offenders had revealed to her how they searched for children with "broken-wing syndrome" - those with alcoholic parents or a parent engrossed in a new relationship, or otherwise not emotionally involved with their children.
Minnie added that different cultures and backgrounds influenced the offender's approach. For example, in poorer communities predators lured their victims with a packet of crisps or a R5 coin, whereas in more affluent areas the gifts became grander.
Psychological and emotional gains, like friendship and attention, played a bigger role.
A typical example of a case in an affluent community was that of a man who found a child on a social networking website where a single mother had innocently posted happy family snaps.
The perpetrator then began a relationship with the mother. "He spoils the child, he spoils the mother, he provides for their financial needs and the child's emotional needs, and a relationship of dependency develops ... It's a kind of emotional blackmail," Minnie said.
Van Niekerk said some children did not want to report the abuse and when the abuse was exposed, the child mourned the loss of the relationship. In the child's mind the rewards it provided outweighed the abuse.
The Child Law Conference - hosted by the Department of Justice to promote laws relating to children that were recently passed, including the Sexual Offences Act, the Children's Act and the Child Justice Act - also covered topics such as preparing child witnesses for court, adoption procedures and sentencing of child criminals.
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