A Humansdorp man was thrown a lifeline on Tuesday when the Gqeberha high court granted him bail, pending the outcome of an appeal.
This, after he was convicted of the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl.
The 58-year-old man was granted R5,000 bail after successfully appealing against the decision by magistrate Vuziwe Mnyani’s not to grant bail pending his petition to the Makhanda high court to appeal against his conviction and sentence.
He was convicted on March 14 and sentenced to six years, with two years suspended.
The self-employed businessman and father of two adult children, was released from St Albans Correctional Facility on Tuesday after his lawyer paid the R5,000 bail set by the high court.
In his application to the Gqeberha high court, he said it would be a miscarriage of justice not to release him on bail pending the outcome of this petition to the Makhanda court, because by the time his appeal was heard he could have been behind bars for a year.
He claimed Mnyani had erred in labelling him a poor witness and relied too heavily on the alleged victim, who was a single witness and testified with the assistance of a court appointed intermediary.
He has continuously denied any guilt and in court papers admitted he showed no remorse for the alleged sexual assault of the minor.
“It would seem that I have no remorse, but I cannot have remorse if I am not guilty of a crime and would I not be false to the court after I was convicted by pretending that I had remorse which would have been misleading for the court,” he said.
He was arrested and charged in December 2019 and released on warning.
According to court documents, he attended court 23 times before he was convicted on March 14.
Court papers reveal that the state called three witnesses to testify in support of the allegations against him during the trial.
These included the alleged victim and her parents while he was the sole witness in his defence.
According to the state, in December 2019 he had visited the girl’s parents who were his good friends.
The girl, her younger brother and father were the only people present on the day.
The girl alleged that while her father was working on a vehicle in the garage she was alone in the main house with the man.
At some stage he had allegedly bent over to hug the girl and as he stood up, rubbed his private parts against her.
He said it was physically impossible for him to have done it as he is much taller than she is.
Later the same day, the girl claimed while she, her father and the man were in the garage he had placed his arms around her shoulders and started to put his hand into the front of her pants.
He then allegedly had his hands on her stomach and pulled at her underwear before she brushed his hand away.
No alarm was raised about his alleged actions at the time and the girl only told her mother later what had allegedly happened.
No date has been set for the application for leave to appeal which will be heard in the Makhanda high court.
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