Police in the Free State have welcomed the “deserved sentence” handed down by the Bloemfontein High Court to a 58-year-old Welkom lawyer convicted of a litany of severe sexual offences against five minor children.
The stepfather, from Dagbreek in Welkom, was sentenced on Thursday, 17 October 2025, on 16 counts following a lengthy court process. He was found guilty on all charges initially laid against him in 2019.
The court imposed a cumulative total of 61 years’ imprisonment, which he will serve concurrently with three life sentences.
The case was first reported to the Thabong Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit on 25 March 2019. The mother of two victims came forward after her daughters disclosed that they were being sexually abused by their stepfather at their residence in Dagbreek, Welkom.
A comprehensive investigation, led by Captain Fanie Van der Merwe of the Thabong FCS Unit, uncovered a deeply disturbing pattern of abuse that occurred over a decade, from 2007 to 2017. The investigation revealed five minor victims, all under the age of 14, fell prey to the accused. The victims included his two step-daughters, a niece visiting from Cape Town, and two friends of the step-daughters. The youngest victim was just seven years old when the abuse began.
During the trial, the court heard evidence that the stepfather sexually groomed the victims, exposed them to pornographic images, and sexually assaulted them. He was also convicted of digitally raping three of the victims. He further compounded his crimes by recording some of the abuse, leading to an additional conviction for the production of child pornography.
The successful prosecution was handled by Advocate Amanda Bester of the National Prosecution Authority, working closely with Captain Van der Merwe.
The breakdown of the sentence is as follows:
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Life imprisonment for rape (x3)
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Indecent assault – 5 years imprisonment
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Sexual grooming: 8 years imprisonment (x2)
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Exposure of pornography to a child: 5 years imprisonment (x2)
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Sexual exploitation of a child: 5 years imprisonment (x1)
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Production of child pornography: 5 years imprisonment (x1)
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Sexual assault: 3 years imprisonment (x5)
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Compelled sexual assault: 5 years imprisonment (x1)
