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Judges' remarks on child rape 'unacceptable'

The "unacceptable" comments of two judges in a child rape case where a vicious cycle of abuse and a prison system which failed at rehabilitation has raised red flags for child rights experts ahead of the start of Child Protection Week today.

The judgment handed down at the Cape Town High Court last week deals with a 42-year-old man's appeal against his sentence for raping two children, a three-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl.

The court reduced his two life sentences and ordered that he serve an effective 13 years.

The man admitted to ordering his sister-in-law's son to perform oral sex on him. He also inserted his finger into an eight-year-old girl's private parts.

But, said judges Owen Rogers and Anton Veldhuizen, the rape of the little boy "cannot be considered as falling at the most heinous end of the scale of child rape" because there were no physical injuries.

They reasoned that the boy "did not experience the horror and disgust an older child might have felt".

The boy was receiving counselling and may be left "largely unscathed".

A social worker's report said the boy has been "too young to understand" what happened to him. The effects on the girl were more evident. She was "anxious, tense and tearful".

"She felt shame" and avoided contact with men.

Joan van Niekerk of the International Society on Child Abuse and Neglect expressed concern that the judges' assumption about the boy "only trivialises the abuse". She called the comments about the seriousness of the rapes unacceptable.

The man's background is what Dr Shaheda Omar of the Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children calls an "inter-generational cycle of violence", where "victims become victimisers".

The man came from a single-parent household, he was blind in the left eye and from the age of eight he was sexually abused by friends.

In 2003, the man was sent to prison for indecently assaulting two girls, aged 4 and 5. He became completely blind after an assault by an inmate. "The prison system . failed [him] badly. Instead of rehabilitation he was terrorised, assaulted by a fellow prisoner which caused his blindness," said the judges.

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