Cape Town - An alleged child molester from Grassy Park has been arrested and will appear in the Wynberg Magistrates’ Court on Monday after a brave victim came forward after more than two decades.
The 54-year-old man, known as “Uncle Paul” to the victim, was bust by Grassy Park police on Friday morning, following a three-month hunt, for allegedly assaulting his friend’s eight-year-old daughter.
The victim, who is now 30, opened up to her family in January after her engagement, claiming Uncle Paul threatened to kill her and her family if she ever spoke out.
The mom of three, who cannot be named, says the man was her uncle’s friend who frequently visited the house she shared with her blind grandmother and mother in Parkwood after her father died in a fire.
“I lived in the main house with my mom and my ouma who was blind. He would come when my mother was at work and go to a spare room in the house,” the woman tells the Daily Voice.
“It was dark because nobody used it and there was a blue chair.
“He would go in there while my ouma (grandmother) was in the house and ask me to bring him water and that is when he did all that stuff to me.
“Every other day he would come to the house and do those things and told me if I said anything, he would kill me and my family. ‘Jy sal vrek soos jou pa’, he said.
“The abuse only stopped when my mom left her job and was at home. But for years when he saw me, he would laugh at me.”
Her 53-year-old uncle says he was shocked when his niece called the family together and opened up about her abuse.
“We got a skrik (fright) because he was my friend since high school and we had no idea he was doing these things,” the uncle says.
“And he did it while my blind mother was in the house and he knew the child was vulnerable.
“When she was young, she was rebellious and would skip school and we could never understand what was wrong with her, (but now we do).”
Police spokesperson, Captain Wynita Kleinsmith, says officers arrested the man in a butchery where he worked.
“He was charged with sexual assault and will appear in the Wynberg Magistrates’ Court on Monday.”
The woman is now calling on other victims of “Uncle Paul” to come forward.
“My primary school years were a nightmare. I had no friends and I always felt unsafe,” she says.
“As an adult, I have had failed relationships and have intimacy problems.
“I am going for counselling now, but I just decided I refuse to be a prisoner.
“I am happy he has been caught and my message to anyone else that he did this to is to come forward. He can’t do s*** to you now.”