For 20 months before the arrests of a man and his stepson, charged with the incestuous rape of a minor, a Humansdorp prosecutor apparently knew what was going on in the “house of horrors”, but chose not to report it.
According to the charge sheet seen for the first time on Friday, Vicky Rossouw was contacted by a Paradise Beach man on January 1 2021.
It is alleged that during this telephone conversation she was informed that the man’s daughter had accused her half-brother of raping her.
The father of the young girl apparently went on to ask Rossouw for advice — a conversation which has since been transcribed, and will form part of the docket.
The father and his stepson were eventually arrested in September this year, but for 20 months before this, the teenage victim was left to fend for herself.
Now, Rossouw’s days working for the state — a job she has held since 1989 — may be numbered as the allegations against her continue to mount.
Rossouw, arrested on Monday for contravening the Criminal Procedure Act when she allegedly failed to immediately report a sexual offence against the child, has, through her lawyer, vehemently denied the allegations.
But it is not the first time Rossouw’s conduct regarding a criminal matter has been brought under scrutiny.
Last year, deputy judge president for the Eastern Cape, David van Zyl, gave Rossouw a tongue-lashing for the way she handled the bail application of Jeffreys Bay murder accused Donovan Wolf, saying she had turned the shooting into a race row when there was no evidence to support this.
Clyde Stuurman, 26, was shot and killed by Wolf in February 2021 while walking though a grassy area in Wavecrest.
Wolf said he had acted in self-defence when Stuurman allegedly charged at him with a knife.
Van Zyl, in passing down judgment in Wolf’s bail appeal before the Gqeberha high court, said Rossouw’s conduct during the initial bail application was of “grave concern”.
Van Zyl found that Rossouw had made the assertion in the Humansdorp Magistrate’s Court that Stuurman’s fatal shooting may have been racially motivated, and had presented a statement by Stuurman’s sister, which Van Zyl said had nothing to do with the bail application.
“An assertion of racial prejudice is not one that should be made lightly in criminal proceedings unless it is supported by evidence and it is relevant to the issues before court.
“It can otherwise serve no purpose other than being prejudicial to an accused person, with the potential to inflame and stir up emotions in a community, and be exploited for reasons that have nothing to do with the guilt or otherwise of the accused, thereby potentially undermining the public order and peace.
“The conduct of [Rossouw] must be condemned in the strongest terms.”
According to Van Zyl, the statement by Lucretia Stuurman “lacked relevance, was prejudicial to [Wolf], and [Rossouw] should not have placed it before the court, and should not have been permitted to introduce it into evidence”.
Wolf was ultimately granted bail.
Contacted for comment on Friday, Rossouw’s legal representative, advocate Hannelie Bakker, said her client had nothing further to add, save that she denied any wrongdoing in the Paradise Beach matter.
Bakker said she was aware of the transcript of the alleged conversation between Rossouw and the victim’s father, but had only seen a portion of it.
Rossouw, 54, was released on warning after appearing in chambers before a magistrate at the same building she works at.
An internal disciplinary hearing into her alleged conduct is due to commence soon, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has confirmed.
The man who is alleged to have contacted Rossouw was, along with his 19-year-old stepson, arrested on September 1 and charged with the rape of the man’s now 17-year-old daughter, incest, grooming and exposing a minor child to pornography.
It is alleged the teen had been sexually groomed and assaulted by her father for more than a decade and raped by her half-brother several times.
The first time he allegedly raped her was on her 15th birthday.
Both men were denied bail.
Days later, the girl’s mother, 39, was also arrested.
She faces the same charge as Rossouw, as well as defeating the ends of justice.
It is alleged the mother knew her son and husband had allegedly sexually assaulted her daughter and did nothing about it.
In addition, it is alleged she tried to convince her teenage daughter not to tell police what had apparently transpired when they arrested her 55-year-old father and 19-year-old half-brother.
A day after Rossouw’s shock arrest, Bakker said in a statement that she was “surprised” her client had been arrested by members of the police’s family violence, child protection and sexual offences (FCS) unit — the same people she had worked closely with for years.
Rossouw was arrested on a J50 warrant, effected by investigating officer Constable Wimpie Azenha, on instruction by deputy director of public prosecutions (DDPP) in Gqeberha, advocate Indra Goberdan.
Goberdan succeeded Bakker as DDPP after she left the NPA to go into private practice.
Rossouw hit back at the manner in which she was arrested, saying through Bakker that she was never informed about the investigation by her employer, or about her imminent arrest.
“She was thus never approached by the investigating officer or her employer to provide her response to the allegations against her before her arrest,” Bakker said.
“Rossouw is saddened and shocked by the approach followed by the police and her employer.”
Rossouw is expected back in court on November 28 pending further investigations.
The mother of the teenage victim has, meanwhile, abandoned her bid for bail and indicated that she would co-operate with the police.
After the mother’s arrest, her two younger children, aged 11 and 13, were taken to a place of safety.
The three accused are expected back in court on January 16.
Wolf, meanwhile, is expected to appear in the city’s high court early next year.
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