Cape Town - Convicted sex pest, Frederick Botha’s attempt to appeal his cumulative 36 year imprisonment sentence for nine counts of indecent and sexual assault has failed in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
Botha also further received three life term imprisonment sentences for three counts of rape against a minor boy.
Botha was sentenced in the Gauteng High Court after it was found that he had, over a period of five years, sexually abused his minor victim - the complainant in the matter.
The sexual abuse started when the complainant was only six years old.
It had taken place at the home of the boy’s paternal grandmother.
A threat by Botha that he would do the same to the boy’s younger sibling “as soon as he turned a year old” was what prompted him to break his silence to his mother.
Case details documented that the boy had stayed with his grandmother during the school holidays while his parents worked and Botha, who lived with the grandmother, offered to take care of him while the grandmother was at work.
“It was mostly during these times when the boy’s grandmother was at work that Botha started to groom (his victim), which eventually led to the sexual abuse of the boy.
“In April 2012, the boy found the courage to report to his mother that he had been repeatedly sexually abused by Botha.
“The boy gave a graphic and chilling account of the sexual abuse… In addition, Botha instructed him to have sexual intercourse with other children while he watched them.
“Botha threatened the complainant that if he were to tell anyone, he would tell the boy’s parents that he was engaging in sexual activity with other children,” judgment documents read.
The boy was threatened into silence as Botha threatened to also “kill his paternal grandmother and his parents” and that he would do the same to the boy’s younger sibling.
“This threat caused the complainant to tell his parents that Botha had been sexually abusing him over a five-year period…We accept that a sentence of 36 years’ imprisonment is severe, but the facts of this case are such that a sentence of 36 years’ imprisonment is not shockingly disproportionate to the crime.
“The high court did not exercise its discretion unreasonably.
“There is no reason to interfere with the sentences imposed,” said Acting Judge Zeenat Carelse.
Cape Times