There is a medium-to-high risk that Johannes Kleinhans, convicted of sexually assaulting three girls, will reoffend, a court heard.
|||Cape Town - There is a medium-to-high risk that sex offender Johannes Kleinhans, who was convicted of sexually assaulting three teenage girls and taking pornographic pictures of them, will reoffend.
This was the testimony of Dr Marcel Londt, a clinical social worker at the Child Abuse Therapeutic and Training Services centre in Kenilworth, in mitigation of sentence on Wednesday.
She told the Parow Regional Court that Kleinhans fell into the lower bracket of the medium-to-high risk sex offenders that would reoffend, but that he could be rehabilitated with strict supervision.
She explained that people in the medium-to-high category were classified according to their previous convictions, the number of their victims, whether they had a total disregard for boundary-setting, and whether their lives were unstable or chaotic.
Kleinhans has been convicted of 95 charges, including indecent assault, sexual assault, sexual grooming, compelled self-sexual assault, using children to benefit from child pornography, and the illegal possession of child pornography.
The girls were aged between 13 and 15, and were paid or received gifts in exchange for the sexual favours. The offences were committed at his rented home in Bellville between 2009 and 2010. The 89 pornographic images of the girls showed their naked bodies, genitals and other body parts.
Londt remained guarded about specifying an appropriate sentence, but said rehabilitation within the prison system did not help offenders because of its harsh environment.
She said treatment at the centre could be effective with the help of court officials, social workers, correctional officers, NGOs and the support of his family.
Conditions of his treatment could include no contact with children under 18 and no unsupervised access to children, including his grandchildren.
Other conditions were that Kleinhans should have no contact with any of the victims, no interactions on social media sites, and that he should not have access to a laptop on which he could view pornography.
After Londt’s evidence, Magistrate Amanda von Leeve said there were no guarantees Kleinhans would adhere to these conditions. She also questioned his family support, because no one had ever been to court to back him.
The case continues on Thursday.
jade.otto@inl.co.za
Cape Argus