More charges have been added to the case against a 77-year-old man accused of raping three girls and sexually exploiting them.
|||Cape Town - More charges have been added to the case against a 77-year-old man accused of raping three teenage girls and sexually exploiting them at a house in Richwood.
Roger Haupt made his second appearance in the Goodwood Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
The court heard that the State would oppose bail for Haupt, who has now been charged with 14 counts related to the sexual assault of the teenagers over four years.
When Haupt first appeared in court on Wednesday he was charged with three counts of rape.
But according to the charge sheet before court on Friday, 14 counts have been brought against him by the State. These include rape, sexual assault, sexual exploitation of children, sexual grooming, and exposure or display of pornography to children.
It is the State’s case that three girls were “recruited” from Dunoon and taken to Richwood where they were sexually abused.
One of the girls, who was just 11 when she was recruited, was raped from 2009 to this year.
For this and the other rape counts, Haupt faces a minimum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted.
The other girls aged between 14 and 16 were sexually exploited during the same time.
The City of Cape Town’s Vice Squad, acting on a tip-off, swooped on the house on July 12 and arrested Haupt.
The girls were taken to a place of safety.
Haupt was due to apply for bail on Friday but prosecutor Francine Ruben told the court that the case could not go ahead because the investigating officer was off sick.
Ruben said the investigator would be back at work on Monday, and suggested that the bail hearing take place tomorrow.
Frans van Dyk, for Haupt, said he was ready to proceed with the bail application.
“I’ve been informed of the illness of the investigating officer. Although I have instructions to proceed with the bail application, under the circumstances I will have to concede, and ask that the case be postponed,” Van Dyk said.
jade.otto@inl.co.za
Cape Argus