“The Action Society team is outraged and appalled with what we have seen this week. We have been fighting with this young woman and her family since 2023 when we were first mandated to oversee the case, only for him to be granted bail and move onto the next victim. Her family is devastated and we are demanding answers ,” said Head of Action Society’s Action Centre in the Western Cape, Kaylynn Palm. “This is very disappointing and is an awful indictment of our country’s failing legal system. This shouldn’t be allowed to happen, yet we see it time and time again. We want answers and demand that her rapist is put behind bars and punished to the fullest extent of the law.”
The photographer is well known in the Paarl area and used his influence and reputation to lure the 19-year-old aspiring model to a secluded area where he gave her alcohol and raped her during a photo shoot. It is alleged that he raped another woman using the same method.
When she first reported the incident to the police, he had already fled the area and was nowhere to be found. Action Society’s investigation team put in a tremendous amount of work into this case. They worked in close collaboration with the police and managed to get him arrested in Stellenbosch in February of 2023, where he was hiding and working at a car dealership . Since then, it has been an uphill battle at the courts with multiple postponements, but the fact that he has been granted bail has come as a major shock to us all.
“We will continue to fight for this young woman, and will make our voices heard in court when he appears again on 17 May, 2024,” concluded Palm.
