Sarah Hudleston
17 June 2008
Johannesburg — FIDENTIA's J Arthur Brown might make legal history if his rape claim goes all the way to court and results in a conviction.
Previously, male sexual intercourse without consent was not recognised as rape, but as sexual assault or sodomy, until the legislation was changed late last year.
Brown's complaint was being investigated by the sexual offences division of the South African Police Service in Cape Town, said William Booth, the lawyer who up to last week was representing the alleged fraudster.
District surgeon Dr Paul Theron said Brown was raped in the back of a police van while being transferred from court to Poll smoor prison. Booth said Brown was receiving antiretrovirals and trauma counselling.
In a similar incident, a 15-year-old Durban boy, arrested on suspicion of shoplifting, was gang-raped in the maximum security section of Durban's Westville Prison, where he had been put in with adult male prisoners.
The case is now the subject of a R1,2m lawsuit being brought by the Child Justice Alliance against the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government.
Another case is that of Nic Bouwer of Polokwane, who was arrested for negligent and reckless driving and was gang-raped by inmates in a cell.
This case is also under investigation.
Until late last year, these three complaints would not have been defined as rape.
But the new Sexual Offences Amendment Act, passed at the end of last year, has introduced dramatic changes to the law, which now says the definition of rape includes a man being raped by another man or woman.
Sasha Gear, of the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, said: "The passing of the bill (10 years after work on it) finally removes one of the obstacles to addressing this (males being raped).
Booth said: "I take issue with the fact that Brown, and in fact any other person charged with a white-collar crime, was put with violent criminals. No one may be brought to book as Brown could not identify his attackers. But the truck guards are responsible."
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