Serial 'teen' paedophile jailed
2003-12-02 20:11
Nelspruit - A paedophile who skipped bail and managed to evade police for seven years while abusing five more children was finally sentenced on Tuesday to five years in jail .
Riaan Delport, 22, didn't show any emotion when Nelspruit sexual offences court refused pleas for an alternative sentence and instead sent him to jail.
Magistrate Willie Wilkens told the packed court Delport obviously had no respect for either the law nor children's rights, and therefore did not deserve correctional supervision.
"You have seriously violated the dignity and privacy of young impressionable children, possibly scaring them for life.
"You have robbed them of their pride and this court will show no mercy for you," said Wilkens.
The sentencing follows graphic court testimony about Delport's life as a teenaged fugitive who had been on the run since he was 15 years old.
Nervous of approaching women
Probation officer Belzi Pierce also told the court that Delport was himself molested when he was nine, possibly prompting him into the role of abuser.
"The abuse damaged Delport psychologically, making him nervous of approaching women. He therefore turned to child molestation to get sexual satisfaction," said Pierce.
He was first caught abusing a six-year-old girl in 1996, just after he turned 15, but skipped bail.
Police have been unable to explain how he then evaded them for seven years in a town as small as White River.
Delport was finally re-arrested in August, when parents of a 10-year-old boy reported him to White River police.
After his arrest, he admitted to molesting five other children between the ages of six and 12.
These included 'opportunistic' abuse of a six-year-old boy, who was forced to perform oral sex on him in 1997, another nine-year-old boy also forced to perform oral sex in 1999, and a 12-year-old girl whom he confessed to fondling in 2001.
Police are uncertain whether there were additional instances of abuse. All the charges were consolidated into a single case, in which Delport plead guilty to all charges. He will serve his sentence at Nelspruit Prison.