NEWS
Man gets suspended sentence for 13 counts of rape

Human Rights groups have criticised the sentence handed down to a Free State businessman in Harrismith. Hanno van Tonder was sentenced to five years imprisonment, suspended for five years on 13 counts of indecently assaulting* six children aged five to 14. (In South Africa sodomy is indecent assault)
The incidents happened at Van Tonder's house, his farm and the Sterkfontein Dam over a nine year period. He was also sentenced to house arrest for 36 months. He will receive psychological treatment and must also pay for psychotherapy for the children involved.
Lisa Vetten of the Tshwaranang Legal Centre, says: "It seems very inappropriate to the seriousness of what this man did, over a period of nine years, and does not seem to adequately reflect the gravity of what he did, and the harm that was done to those little girls in the process"

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