Warning on justice for young

OVERBURDENED courts, shoddy detective work and an inability to shield children from further abuse has left the criminal justice system in crisis.

At the launch of law clinic ProBono.Org's "One Child A Year Campaign", Germiston magistrate Teresa Swart said she dealt with at least 280 cases a month that related to children and their security.

Swart said the number of cases involving children had escalated dramatically in the last three years and was now in crisis.

The campaign, launched in response to this crisis, aims to appoint pro-bono attorneys to monitor court processes and the children involved well after the proceedings have been completed.

Some of the cases the courts deal with include child abuse, abandonment and child trafficking.

In one case, two sisters, aged five and seven, were allegedly raped by their 22- year-old uncle. It was later established the four-year-old brother had also been raped.

The uncle was not prosecuted because police had only questioned the boy six months after the alleged crime and he could not remember where it had taken place.

The relevant medical records had also become outdated.

"[The uncle] is still walking around town," Swart said.

In another case, DNA evidence proved that a five-year-old was raped by a 27year-old man who had pleaded not guilty.

Then the child's grandmother requested that the charges be withdrawn because the perpetrator was a relative. The matter went to mediation, where the man admitted to the crime, but there was no intervention for the child's safety.

"It has been a battle fought for many years ... Sadly, we are losing many of [the cases involving children] ... What we are not doing is protecting children," the Child Advocacy Forum's Luke Lamprecht said.

Attorney Michal Johnson said she often received desperate e-mails or please call me cellphone messages from children who required legal assistance. Dealing with these cases was a fight, she said. - Aarti J Narsee