All children have the right to safety and dignity, and protection against abuse.
As the current 16 days of activism protesting violence against women and children draws to a close, it’s important to remember that not all sexual violence happens quickly, and that not all sexual violence happens to girls and women.
Often, the perpetrator grooms their victims over time, and even in plain sight, and often, the victims are young boys who don’t understand what’s happening to them, trapping them in trauma and silencing them in shame. The consequences of sexual abuse are equally tragic, whether the abuse is against girls or boys.
In the case of Julio Mordoh, he was an isolated and bullied pre-teen who had been entrusted into the pastoral care of a teacher at St John’s Preparatory School - a predator who groomed Julio, and many other boys, and then sexually abused them.
Julio tragically died by suicide in his early 20s, a year after the school disclosed the abuse allegations and he realised his nightmares were real and he wasn’t the only victim. Unable to deal with the pain, trauma and destruction that had been wrought in his young life by a perpetrator who has yet to face any consequences, Julio died to be free.
The school and church under whose care the abuse took place has hidden most of the findings of its own internal investigation into what happened during the perpetrator’s employment there, effectively marking its own homework and deciding its own consequences for failing in its duty of care.
Julio’s parents, guided by attorney Ian Levitt, a legal expert in child sexual abuse cases, recently instituted a civil case against the school, seeking R60.1 million in damages. The amount sought was calculated by an independent expert using sophisticated progression models.
No amount of money will ever bring Julio back, nor will it ease the pain of the boys and parents whose lives have been ravaged by a predatory teacher. What this case will do is raise awareness of the issues at hand, compelling schools to report suspicions of child abuse to the authorities, along with inspiring more robust prevention measures across the whole schooling system.
Schools have no incentive to report abuse, and the Mordohs’ action sets out to create a precedent of meaningful consequences for schools and other institutions that enable abusers’ behaviour by turning a blind eye to perpetrators’ actions.
“The criminal case, when it eventually happens, will hopefully see the perpetrator face justice for his crimes. However, the abuse happened under the watch of the school, which did not fulfil its legal obligation to report the matter to SAPS and only conducted internal investigations after the crimes were reported. The school has neither faced any consequences for its negligence, nor has it been transparent about the processes it went through once the abuse was reported, including its refusal to release the full report following its own investigations.”
According to Levitt, a civil case like this is the boldest activism that the Mordoh parents can take to highlight the sexual abuse epidemic in schools faced by all South Africa’s children, and to effect change to prevent it recurring in the future.
“There’s no clean-cut justice in a case like this. Nothing will bring the innocence of these boys back, and nothing will bring Julio back. However, as legal protectors, we need to take a bold stand against environments that enable abuse and draw attention to the warning signs so that no other children have to endure this torture again,” he said.
In civil litigation, one party takes legal action against others to redress issues that aren’t covered by the criminal law framework. While the legal system plays the role of arbiter, the case is between private individuals or legal entities, and the outcome is restorative but not in terms of prison time. The court makes its judgement by determining a remedy if the plaintiff is successful, which could include monetary damages, or other steps that the court deems appropriate under the circumstances.
To be successful on a balance of probabilities, the plaintiffs need to bring a compelling body of evidence showing that they have been adversely affected by the defendant’s actions, such as being injured, traumatised, or having their human rights violated. The other party in turn has to defend against the allegations made by the plaintiff.
Levitt explained: “Civil cases can be long, costly and gruelling, often surrounding very raw and emotive issues like injury, abuse, or wrongful death. However, enduring a case like this pales in comparison to what this teacher’s victims have endured, or the massive grief and trauma that the Mordoh family has experienced from the loss of their child. While we can only hope that the wheels of justice will eventually grind and that the perpetrator will face a criminal conviction with sentencing suiting the severity of his crimes, this outcome will still not hold schools and other institutions to account to prevent sexual abuse of children and concealment in the future.
“It’s only when abusers and the environments that enable them see that they can no longer conceal or evade situations like this unscathed, that more will be done to prevent this kind of abhorrent abuse, and that those that sink to it will be faced with both severe criminal and civil consequences,” he added.