Justice 'failed' child

2003-10-01 08:39

Adriaan Basson

Johannesburg - "There was no justice in this case.

"We have a responsibility to that three-year-old child to try to do something."

This was the reaction of the deputy head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Jan Henning, on Tuesday to the case of a three-year-old rape victim who had to testify in open court in May and eventually could not utter a word.

The suspect, a 24-year-old friend of the family, was acquitted in the Temba magistrate's court on May 6.

Henning said he would ask the NPA's Mmabatho office to urgently investigate whether the case could be reviewed.

A mother from Soweto's pleas for help alerted the media to events at the court where child victims of sexual offences have had to testify in open court for the past six years.

The closed-circuit television was broken and there were no intermediaries available at the court.

Henning said it was "very clear that the three-year-old should never have been brought into an open court to testify against the accused".

"The other question that one could ask is whether it was at all necessary to call the child. In my opinion, circumstantial evidence could have been enough to build a strong case."

Henning said the outcome of the case could not be appealed because there was no legal question, but that it could be reviewed if irregularities occurred during the trial.

Send e-mail to reporter

- Beeld