Shattered family

While most matric pupils are back behind their desks, Rachel Cloete* is fighting for her day in court after a 62-year-old man allegedly plied her with alcohol and then raped her a year ago.

She was 16 years old.

Now 17, Rachel has dropped out of school in Elsies River, Cape Town, as she moves between social workers, police officers and lawyers in a bid to put together a case against the man she once trusted with her life secrets.

The man, a prominent guesthouse owner from a trendy Western Cape winelands town, is married with children. He is also the former boyfriend of Rachel’s mother.

The man cannot be named because he has yet to plead to a sexual offence. He is appearing in the Cape Town Regional Court on April 26.

But Rachel’s mother is backing her ex-boyfriend rather than her daughter, who has since moved out of home and is staying with a friend in Athlone.

The teen told City Press how she began to trust the man she has fought to get into the dock for a year.

“I got his number from my mum’s phone,” she told City Press this week. “Whenever things bothered me, I messaged him, things I couldn’t tell my mother. He became like a father figure to me, an uncle, a best friend, all rolled into one.”

It was a difficult time for Rachel. Five days after her 16th birthday in September 2014, she tried to hang herself with her school tie in her bedroom in Kensington. The following month, she was admitted to the Kenilworth Treatment Centre for Adolescents and Young Adults for severe depression.

“I also had an eating disorder. I thought I was fat,” she says.

During this time, the man would take her out to lunch at Canal Walk or in Simon’s Town. But then in April last year, a family squabble over a Bollywood movie made her reach out to him one last time.

“It was a massive fight – with my mum, her new husband, my aunt and grandmother all going off at me. It was over a Bollywood film my cousin wanted to watch ... I was so emotional and cried for hours, and later I texted [the accused]. He said he would take me away for a few days to clear my head.”

Rachel told police that the accused arranged for his driver to pick her up in Cape Town in a bakkie, and he later met them with his four-wheel drive vehicle at the Engen garage outside Worcester.

He drove her to the West Coast resort town of Paternoster, stopping for a six-pack of Smirnoff Spin along the way.

“It was normal at first. We sat watching the sunset, then had something to eat. It was load shedding, so it was dark. I had a few Smirnoffs...”

He allegedly raped her in the evening, and again the next morning.

“I said ‘no’ so many times. But I was trapped and scared, and far from home,” says Rachel.

“The next morning, he said to me: ‘How did you sleep, baby?’ I didn’t know how to respond, so I just said, ‘Fine’.”

Western Cape police spokesperson Andre Traut confirmed that the guesthouse owner was arrested on a charge of rape. But the man was never taken into custody, and was merely “issued with a written notice to appear in court”.

Meanwhile, Rachel insists she is a victim of both rape and injustice.

The teenager claims it has been an uphill battle since she first reported the matter to police in December, a month after her friend convinced her to go to the cops.

The police detective tried to dissuade her from laying the case at all, saying there was a minimal chance of success. After that, the case docket allegedly disappeared and the case was withdrawn.

“In January, the case was thrown out. They just said it wasn’t strong enough,” she said. “I don’t think it’s fair.”

Her lawyer, Lynnsay Jones, says the man was finally charged by police three weeks ago.

Traut said the investigation was conducted in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act and that Rachel should lodge a complaint with the Independent Police Investigative Directorate if she was dissatisfied.

“It has been so tough, but I just want to expose what this man did. He even asked me whether I had young female friends for him.

“I know it wasn’t my fault, but somehow I feel guilty. Even my mum said it was my own fault.”

Rachel wants to return to school next year to complete her matric and go on to study psychology or law. But for now, all she wants is her day in court.

City Press contacted the accused for comment, but none was forthcoming.

*Not her real name