{"id":936,"date":"2019-06-14T06:52:50","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T06:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/?p=936"},"modified":"2019-07-01T20:57:50","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T20:57:50","slug":"sexual-offences-act-referred-back-to-parliament-after-convicted-rapist-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/2019\/06\/14\/sexual-offences-act-referred-back-to-parliament-after-convicted-rapist-shock\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexual Offences Act referred back to Parliament after convicted rapist shock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\nCape Town \u2013 The Western Cape High Court has referred the Sexual Offences\n Act back to Parliament for changes, after a convicted rapist committed \nanother rape while employed as a security guard at a cr\u00e8che.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cassiem Abrahams raped an 11-year-old girl who lived across the street from the cr\u00e8che where he worked in Bonteheuwel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had approached the court to appeal his sentence when acting Judge \nDaniel Thulare made the recommendation that amendments be made to the \nact. His appeal against the life imprisonment was dismissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014, the child was playing in the street when the then \n50-year-old Abrahams took her to his room where he instructed her to get\n onto the bed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once Abrahams was on the bed, according to the court papers, he raped\n her and threatened to harm her if she told anyone about what had \nhappened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Thulare said section 50 of the act only made reference against \naccused people serving \u201ca sentence of imprisonment or who has served a \nsentence of imprisonment, as the result of conviction for a sexual \noffence against a child or a person who is mentally disabled\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe wording of the act and its general scheme appear to suggest that\n persons like the accused, known by the State to have a record of \nprevious convictions and to have served sentence(s) for indecent assault\n and\/or rape (where the victim may not be a child or a person who is not\n mentally disabled) are not deemed by the State to be a danger to \nchildren, as victims of sexual offences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If this is so, is this not a structural and systematic gap against every child\u2019s right to be protected from abuse? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is respectfully submitted and recommended that, since the \nDepartment of Justice is looking at extending the scope of the act, as \nmentioned above, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) \nAmendment Act 32 of 2007, be referred back to Parliament for amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am not inclined to interfere with the sentence imposed by the trial court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my view, the absence of appropriate prescripts, like the relevant\n provisions in Act 32 of 2007, is part of the gap that allowed the \nappellant with his previous convictions to have access to the cr\u00e8che and\n indirectly to the child survivor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe systematic and operational failures, with specific reference to \noversight and compliance with laws which regulates who should be \nemployed to work with children or who is to work having access to \nchildren, is something that require further investigation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said a copy of the judgment would be served to the chairperson of \nthe portfolio committee in the Department of Justice, as well as to the \nSpeaker of the National Assembly, for their attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parliament said as no committees had been formed yet, comment was not forthcoming at this stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original Article: https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/capetimes\/news\/sexual-offences-act-referred-back-to-parliament-after-convicted-rapist-shock-26182184?fbclid=IwAR2TLtsxXGldpQHTEX2BwqvBxA2huaDLaUy-EatVSf29ZFVKTXZMSPWjYkM<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cape Town \u2013 The Western Cape High Court has referred the Sexual Offences Act back to Parliament for changes, after a convicted rapist committed another rape while employed as a security guard at a cr\u00e8che. Cassiem Abrahams raped an 11-year-old girl who lived across the street from the cr\u00e8che where he worked in Bonteheuwel. He […]\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"tpgb_global_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"tpgb_featured_images":{"full":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/parliament.jpg",519,291,false],"tp-image-grid":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/parliament.jpg",519,291,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/parliament-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/parliament-300x168.jpg",300,168,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/parliament.jpg",519,291,false],"large":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/parliament.jpg",519,291,false],"default":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/plugins\/the-plus-addons-for-block-editor\/assets\/images\/tpgb-placeholder.jpg"},"tpgb_post_meta_info":{"get_date":"June 14, 2019","get_modified_date":"July 1, 2019","category_list":{"category":[{"term_id":19,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":19,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":238,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":false,"post_format":false},"author_name":"KR Main","author_url":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/author\/krtt554\/","author_email":"info@krdesign.co.za","author_website":"https:\/\/krdesign.co.za","author_description":"","author_facebook":"","author_twitter":"","author_instagram":"","author_role":["administrator"],"author_firstname":"KR","author_lastname":"Main","user_login":"Krtt554","author_avatar":"","author_avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/608d672aac1e355cbbad09eee9069291e7745430f69e40ef30b85b86603e2d6f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","comment_count":0,"post_likes":0,"post_views":0},"tpgb_post_category":{"category":"News<\/a> "},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":940,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions\/940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}