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Teacher accused of raping boys admits he knew he had HIV

A primary school teacher charged with raping two schoolboys knew he was HIV positive when the alleged rapes occurred.

The Protea Magistrate's Court in Soweto heard this as the trial of the teacher on two counts of rape and one of attempted murder continued on Friday.

The teacher allegedly raped the one boy, then aged 10, at the school in November 2013.

The teacher was also charged with attempted murder for allegedly knowingly exposing the boy to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

The boy had previously told the court that the teacher made him stay after school as punishment for damaging a book. The boy said the teacher gave him a choice between rape and a phone call to his mother but proceeded to rape him before the boy could make a choice.

Testifying in his own defence on Friday, the teacher said he has known for the past eight years that he is HIV positive.

He denied raping the two boys.

He is also accused of raping another boy, then nine years old, in a bathroom at Maponya Mall in 2013 after offering the boy a lift home after soccer practice.

The teacher said the mother of the boy allegedly raped at school was his “secret lover” and said he and the boy's mother had sex “several times” prior to his arrest. He said he had declared his love for her after he met her in the school corridor one day.

“I had been separated from my wife. While we were still estranged, the boy's mother came into the picture. When my wife and I reconciled, that's when my relationship with the boy's mother soured,” the teacher said.

Despite that, they continued to have sex up until the week before his arrest, he said.

He said their trysts, which started in 2013, would often take place in his car.

Prosecutor Carina Coetzee accused the teacher of lying because he never had an affair with the boy's mother.

Outside court, the boy's mother said her son received anti-HIV treatment after the alleged rape and tested negative for HIV.

The trial continues later this month.

 

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