George - A dentist convicted of performing sexual acts on a friend’s minor son during a holiday sleepover has been sentenced to four years’ correctional supervision.
In September, George dentist Ian Venter, 42, was convicted in the Thembalethu Regional Court of three charges involving sexual acts on a minor and two charges relating to showing pornographic material to a minor. Venter was, however, acquitted on the main charges relating to rape.
Venter faced nine charges including rape and sexual assault after a sleepover at his luxury rental home in Victoria Bay outside George on December 27, 2011. The teenager’s parents, who live in Pretoria, had known Venter and his family since 1998 and regularly socialised.
During his testimony the boy, 15 at the time and now in matric, said Venter had given him alcohol and showed him pornographic material before performing sexual acts on him.
Magistrate Eugenia Jacobs said on Wednesday she believed that correctional supervision was an appropriate sentence but with strict conditions.
Venter will be under house arrest for the four years and will be allowed to leave his home only to take his children to school and to go to work between 6.45am and 6pm.
He may not go near any schools other than his children’s. He is also not allowed to frequent nightclubs, use alcohol or drugs and will be registered on the sexual offenders register, which prohibits him from working with children.
He will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device.
Venter also has to pay the boy’s family R50 000 for costs incurred for trauma counselling, and must complete 16 hours of community service every month.
In testimony, the boy’s mother took the stand in aggravation of sentence and described how the incident had “ruined” her family’s lives.
“One night he told me that he did not want to continue living,” she said.
Her son had refused to talk about the incident, his performance at school dropped and he now questioned his sexuality.
“The HIV medication he had to take after the incident also made him very sick and he couldn’t participate in any activities at school for three months.”
She had struggled with depression after the incident and still battled to look at her son without wondering what he had endured that night.
His younger sister, 11 at the time, also needed counselling as she blamed herself for the incident. “She was the one who asked if they could sleep over at his house and therefore blamed herself.
“A person like him should not be allowed in society,” she said when asked about an appropriate sentence.
Financially the incident also took its toll on the family. The sessions with a psychologist, medication and travel expenses to court over the past three years had cost them more than R130 000.
Braam Swart, for Venter, said Venter too had suffered throughout the process. The father-of-three experienced financial pressure after his wife became ill and died in April this year. The public also “crucified” him and the negative media attention had affected him.
“He was the architect of his own downfall,” Magistrate Jacobs said.
Swart said Venter had been threatened and was physically assaulted by a member of the public because of the case.
After sentencing, the boy’s father said they were satisfied with the sentence and were relieved the court case had now ended.
His son had wanted to be in court to find some closure, but was busy writing matric exams.
Garden Route Media