Pretoria - Nicholas Ninow’s alleged actions have left the child minder who found him in the toilet with the seven-year-old unable to work with children ever again.
The horror of the incident and the words of the girl's mother at the Dros restaurant on 22 September 2018, are things she testified would haunt her forever.
The child minder was the State’s third witness on the second day of the rape trial of Ninow in the North Gauteng High Court on Tuesday.
On Monday, Ninow’s legal representation Herman Alberts read Ninow’s statement to the court where he admitted guilt to three of the four charges against him.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of rape, possession of illegal substances and defeating the ends of justice; but not guilty to assault.
The minder, who broke down while giving her testimony, recalled how she still could not get the image out of her mind and how she had been watching the child and her brother the entire time just before she took lunch.
She said the child asked her to go to the bathroom just as she was about to go for lunch around 16:00.
She then said she walked with the child to the female bathroom and proceeded to go to the back of the restaurant to have her 15-minute lunch.
Upon her return she said she asked the brother about the girl’s whereabouts and he said she was still in the toilet.
The mother showed up shortly afterwards also asking about the girl’s whereabouts. She then went to the bathroom to check.
“I still can’t believe I was with the child and this happened to her. I quit working at the restaurant because it still upsets me.”
“Hearing the mother tell me that she trusted me with her child and I let her down. It hurt knowing she put her faith in me and I failed.”
Ninow’s mother also finally made an appearance in court on Tuesday alongside his grandmother.
She sat in court looking emotional as journalists took videos and pictures of Ninow, amongst the growing taunts from the public gallery.