A former maths teacher and rugby coach, who taught at schools in the UK and South Africa, has been arrested for alleged crimes committed on home soil.
The man, 83, is understood to have handed himself over to the authorities in Cape Town on Monday.
This after a former Rondebosch Boys’ Preparatory School pupil claimed he was sexually and physically abused by him after meeting him in 1988 while in Standard 5.
He laid the charge 10 days ago.
The suspect appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court and was released on a warning. He will be back in the dock on 13 April.
Two weeks ago, he was named as an alleged child predator who abused boys at Edinburgh Academy and Fettes College in Scotland.
Using parliamentary privilege, former Scottish National Party leader Ian Blackford said in the House of Commons several claims had been made against him at both schools, and he had admitted to “inappropriate behaviour”.
Miranda Jordan – the founding director of Women and Men Against Child Abuse, which has been supporting the South African complainant – said naming him was in the public interest as his pending extradition case allowed him to still walk free.
She added this “horrific human being has gotten away with abusing boys for decades”.
He should be in jail as he was already a “fugitive from the UK”, Jordan added.
“He has been able to live his life with no accountability for the physical and sexual abuse he inflicted on young boys. All of this within a culture of the open physical assaults of boys by men at the school who were meant to nurture them,” she said.
“I am ashamed as a South African that we are harbouring this monster and hope the South African law, hard fought for, will hold him accountable for this historical abuse. We eagerly await his plea as a sign of his remorse for his misuse of power over small children for his own sexual gratification.”
The BBC reported on documents related to his extradition proceedings, in which he admitted to having “urges” to “inappropriately touch” pupils while teaching at Edinburgh Academy.
He had, according to him, “on occasion” done so. He also reportedly admitted to having these urges while teaching at two primary schools in Cape Town during the 1960s.
He had, according to his papers, travelled to the UK, where he spent three months at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in 1967, receiving psychiatric treatment for his “problem”.
A year later, he obtained a diploma in education at Moray House College.
He was employed by Edinburgh Academy and later at Fettes Junior College, where, he admitted, his inappropriate behaviour continued. Thereafter, he went back to hospital for further treatment.
He reportedly left the college in 1979 following a complaint about his behaviour.
He came back to South Africa, where he no longer behaved inappropriately, according to him. He claimed he had “managed to contain [himself]” after leaving Scotland.
In Scotland, he faces six charges of lewd, indecent, and libidinous practices and behaviour and one of indecent assault. The victims were reportedly aged seven to 14.
Jordan said it was believed he abused many more boys in the UK and back home and encouraged them to come forward and report it.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila confirmed the man was ruled to be extraditable.
He is appealing the decision.