Girl, 13, had years of sex hell

2008-01-30 08:11

Tom de Wet

Welkom - A 13-year-old girl who has a terminal blood disease spent many nights sleeping on the floor next to her brother's bed or hiding under her own to try and get away from a man who indecently assaulted her for several years.

The man, Theunis Prinsloo, 52, who is not related to the child, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, conditionally suspended in its entirety.

Magistrate Johan Bosch passed sentence in the Welkom Regional Court after a plea-and-sentencing agreement with the State.

He is prohibited from having any contact with the girl and must pay her R550 a month for two years for therapy, among other things.

He also was sentenced to 36 months' corrective supervision, during which time he must undergo various treatment programmes; to 24 months' house arrest of which half will be maximum intensive house arrest; and to 16 hours' community service every month for the duration of the sentence.

Was afraid of Prinsloo

He started indecently assaulting the girl in 2000, when she was eight years old.

It happened more and more often and he made her promise not to tell anyone.

When she was 10, he got into the shower naked with her and forced himself on her. When she cried and screamed he would call her a "pissy".

She was afraid of him, and when she threatened to tell someone, he became very angry. The assaults continued until 2006, when they moved house.

The girl started becoming depressed and showed suicide tendencies. She was sent to a psychologist, to whom she related her "hell of the past few years".

Prinsloo, a divorced man who works in a gold mine at Welkom, pleaded guilty to all the charges against him.

The court heard that he had a history of violence towards humans and animals alike, and a boy previously had got an interdict against him for inappropriate violence and punishment.

Had shown remorse

In mitigation of sentence it was argued that he had had an unhappy childhood accompanied by violence and abuse. He admitted guilt and was completely willing to co-operate in therapy and rehabilitation.

He also showed remorse, is bothered by what he did, and has thought of suicide.

Charmaine Labuschagne, for the State, argued in aggravation of sentence that the child had lived in constant fear, believing that she, or someone in her family, would be injured if she tried to go for help.

She said the girl had been emotionally crippled and would have to undergo therapy for a long time to come.

Volksblad