I couldn't face Hestrie - Klay

2009-11-04 23:01

Johannesburg - Robbie Klay, the young Afrikaans singer who is accusing fellow singer Jurie Els of molesting him as a child, on Wednesday told the High Court in Pretoria he wanted to help other children in the same position.

Klay has accused Els of repeatedly indecently assaulting and sodomising him between the ages of 11 and 16, even though he has admitted to being a willing partner who even took the lead at times.

Els has pleaded not guilty of two charges of indecently assaulting Klay and one of soliciting the under-aged Klay to commit indecent acts.

Klay testified that he at first tried to put everything behind him and get on with his life, but decided to talk after a journalist phoned him and asked pertinent questions about his relationship with Els.

'It can happen to anyone'

"After our conversation, our relationship and everything that happened came back... I thought about everything and decided to reveal it.

"...I laid criminal charges in February 2008. The decision was to tell the public and children in the same situation that it can happen to anyone and that they must talk about it," he said.

Klay told his mother and his fiancée at the time some of the details of what had happened to him.

Little knowing what was going on, his mother had always encouraged him to do what Els said, believing he had Klay's best interests at heart.

"I never (at first) told her because the accused said it was our secret and he would go to jail and I to an orphanage. I did not want to be taken away from my mother and rather kept quiet about it," he said.

Avoided Els

Klay testified that he started to avoid Els after Els started a relationship with his present wife, high jumper Hestrie Cloete.

He insisted he was not unhappy about the relationship, but felt "uncomfortable" to look Hestrie in the eye while he and Els both knew what had happened between them.

He said there had never really been a woman in Els's life during their relationship, although he (Klay) had a relationship with a girl, who fell pregnant with his child when he was only 15-years-old.

He told the court Els had been "very upset" on hearing that he had sex with a girl.

Asked by Acting Judge Chris Eksteen if he was not upset because he "wanted to continue his double relationship", Klay said he realised after having sex with his girlfriend that "certain things were not right" and he did not want to do what he did with Els.

The trial continues on Thursday.
 

- SAPA