Cape Town - The director of public prosecutions (DPP) has ruled that swimming coach Tim Osrin will stand trial for the alleged assault and sexual assault of two women in Claremont.
Osrin made a brief appearance in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday when the court heard the DPP’s decision.
The assault case involving domestic worker Cynthia Joni and the sexual assault case, which relates to a sex worker, had been on the roll as separate matters.
When Osrin took the stand in January, the parties agreed to mediation under the auspices of the SA National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders.
The programme entailed counselling sessions aimed at Osrin and Joni meeting to resolve the matter.
A proposed plea bargain agreement would then be discussed.
However, Osrin’s attorney, Keith Gess, said on Thursday: “Discussions between myself and the DPP have not gone well.”
Gess told the Cape Times that Joni had not been keen to participate and that this was “part of the reason” why the request for a plea bargain was dismissed.
“The plan was for a plea bargain, but the DPP was not happy with that. So now the matter, and the other matter, will go to trial as one case,” Gess said.
In October last year, police confirmed that Osrin had been charged with sexual assault.
A week prior to being charged, Osrin had appeared in court for the alleged assault on Joni, who he claimed he had mistaken for a sex worker. The complainant in the other matter, a 32-year-old sex worker, told police she had been sexually assaulted by Osrin in December 2013.