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On Monday, the former Grey College teacher and Media24 executive Willem Breytenbach pleaded guilty to seven charges of indecent assault and three of sexual assault in the Cape Town Regional Court.

The charges range from his time as a teacher at Grey College in Bloemfontein in 1989 and 1990 to some unfortunate interactions in 2017-2018 with his employees at his company, Lightspeed Digital Media in Cape Town. Breytenbach was also a publisher of Media24’s weekly magazines, including Huisgenoot and You.

The sexual predator closed his digital media business and fled the city, going AWOL for a while, until it was uncovered that he was hiding out at his mother’s house in Reebok, near Mossel Bay. He was laying low all of a sudden because one of his victims, Deon Wiggett had unveiled his name on his podcast My Only Story.

As News24 reported, Wiggett – who had been tracking down the man who allegedly raped him more than 20 years ago in a four-part true crime podcast supplied exclusively to News24 – unmasked the man he had previously referred to as “Jimmy” as Willem Breytenbach.

Wiggett had since found a number of Breytenbach’s alleged victims who also bravely stepped forward to tell their stories of abuse. Some claim they were sexually abused as minors while Breytenbach was a teacher at, among others, Grey College in Bloemfontein in the 90s, while others alleged being abused by Breytenbach while being involved with a school newspaper project at Media24.

OFM reported that listening to Wiggett’s podcast and speaking to 16 sources who knew or worked with Breytenbach, “a picture emerges of a man who believed he was untouchable and used his professional power, as a teacher and later as a media executive, to coerce young boys and men into sexual traps.”

“He had a bag full of tricks: the gift of the gab; promises that he would make or break your career; his “amazing massages” that he used to entrap boys from his days as a teacher, and his powerful, larger than life persona that would explode when he did not get his way.”

…The words “I was scared of him” are repeated over and over again.

Finally, the sick man will face the music in court after years of evading the consequences.

On Monday, victim impact statements were read out in the Cape Town Regional Court, and in one case played as a voice note by prosecutor Carmen Daniels, as Cape Town Regional Court magistrate Amori Graf hears submissions ahead of her decision on what sentence to hand down, reported News24 in another article.

In their statements, the victims spoke of how the abuse destabilised their lives for decades.

One man said he gave up sports and left the hostel where the assault on him took place, continuing his education in private. Later in life, he struggled with relationships and couldn’t get married to his girlfriend.

“I wouldn’t have had the confidence to be a man for her. I was once a joyful confident boy. In one act Breytenbach tore me down. He didn’t hurt me physically, but he hurt my trust.”

One of Breytenbach’s adult victims described how he would be isolated at work if he rejected Breytenbach’s advances.

“I  don’t think he should see daylight again in his life,” said a man who was indecently assaulted by Breytenbach.

“My hope is that Mr Breytenbach will be locked up for good,” said another man, who was employed at Breytenbach’s digital marketing company.

Willem Breytenbach has to wait until 9 December to hear whether he will go to jail after being convicted of sexual and indecent assault.

[source:news24]