Cape Town - Several children’s rights activists have voiced their concern over delays in wrapping up the investigation in the case against an award-winning Plettenberg Bay teacher accused of sexually assaulting a schoolboy.
The 42-year-old teacher Leigh Dunn appeared in the local magistrate’s court on Tuesday, only for the matter to be postponed for a final time for further investigation.
The reason for the delay in the investigation was that two witness statements and a social worker’s report were still outstanding.
John Gillespie, for Dunn, urged the court to postpone the matter for “a final time for further investigation” as the two witness statements had already been outstanding on July 3 when his client was released on bail. The matter was postponed to November 5.
Dunn was arrested on June 22 after the pupil’s guardian reported the alleged incidents to police.
Police said the boy’s guardian suspected “something was wrong” when the boy started wetting his bed. After play therapy with the boy, he revealed to her that the teacher had allegedly sexually assaulted him on two occasions during May this year. The incidents allegedly took place once at a swimming pool and on another occasion at the accused’s home.
After a lengthy bail application, the teacher was released on R3 000 bail under strict conditions, including that he may not access the school premises.
During his bail application, in a statement read out by Gillespie, Dunn denied the allegations and said that crimes of this nature “disgusted” him and that he was “shocked” by the accusations of the child.
“I don’t know why he would say something like that,” the statement read.
He added that the child was one of the pupils in his class “with potential” and he had gone out of his way to “ensure the child’s happiness”.
At the time Gillespie also handed in statements of support for the accused, including those from 17 of his colleagues, a former principal, an art therapist and an orthopaedic surgeon.
Dunn also labelled himself as an honourable person who would “never sexually assault anyone, let alone a child”.
He said in the statement that he had no previous convictions.
However, investigating officer Warrant Officer Chris Wolhuter, from the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offence (FCS) Unit in George, testified that the teacher had signed an admission of guilt in an assault case.
Wolhuter explained that a pupil in his class claimed that the accused had beaten him with a stick.
The accused then paid an admission of guilt fine of R150.
“We are shocked to learn that the investigation has not been completed and that these statements are still outstanding.
“We demand that police investigating the matter obtain these statements immediately as this puts the case at risk of being thrown out of court.
“We cannot have the case withdrawn due to technicalities like this,” Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA) spokeswoman Joanne Barrett said on Tuesday.
Barrett and several other children’s rights activists and groups gathered at the Plettenberg Bay Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday in support of the child.
“We at WMACA view these allegations in an extremely serious light and trust the justice system will give top priority to the child’s best interests.
“It seems the rights of the accused are placed above that of the child, which we find totally unacceptable,” Barrett added.
She further said alleged child abuse and sex scandals involving top influential community members was not a new phenomenon.
“Yet communities still lean over backwards to protect them, even when faced with the most appalling allegations.”
A large group of family, friends and other supporters of the teacher also took their places in the court gallery on Tuesday.
Since the allegations surfaced, there has been widespread support for the accused teacher.
He is a well-known member of the Plettenberg community and has also won several education awards during his teaching career.
Dunn was nominated as a finalist in The Herald GM Citizen of the Year in 2012, and also received the Education Department’s National Teaching Award in Sandton that same year.
In 2013 Dunn received the country’s first “Teachers for Change Award” from the magazines, Huisgenoot, YOU and DRUM.
Magriet Ferreira, spokeswoman for local children’s rights group, Plett Green Hearts, said she believed that in cases like these “the child’s version should be believed until proven otherwise”.
Garden Route Media