Convicted child molester found working as dentist
for 9 years in South Africa
Charl Blignautfor 9 years in South Africa
‘He was a very cunning operator, very sneaky. He seduces in very subtle ways’
Adult victims of a convicted child molester have poured their hearts out to City Press after discovering that the man who abused them has been back working as a dentist for nine years.
Dr Izak “Sakkie” Geldenhuys (63) continued to work under licence from the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) at a “family dental clinic” in Midrand, Johannesburg. The clinic’s shocked owners have ended his contract.
Geldenhuys was convicted three times for five sexual assaults on minors. He abused at least seven boys who came forward, some of whom were abused in the dentist’s chair, and laid charges against him. City Press is aware of at least six others who also allege he abused them.
His victims now believe he has groomed and molested many more boys, commonly between the ages of 12 and 14. Among the boys, now men, who spoke to City Press are political columnist, writer and editor TO Molefe (38) and Albertus van Wyk (47), a former magazine editor and entrepreneur.
Dr Izak Geldenhuys
Van Wyk and Molefe’s accounts shed new light on Geldenhuys’ past in Balfour in Mpumalanga and later in Mahikeng in North West.
They claim the “nerdy” and “cunning” dentist “just couldn’t keep his hands to himself”.
Geldenhuys denied most charges against him, saying he was leaving dentistry and “going out of the limelight now”.
But with a recent Constitutional Court’s judgment removing the 20-year statute of limitations on sexual assault, the victims are considering opening a new criminal case against him.
Van Wyk told City Press that in the 1980s Geldenhuys established a practice after graduating from the University of Pretoria. As the town’s only dentist, he was held in high regard.
Van Wyk met a 28-year-old Geldenhuys when he was 11. “He was a very cunning operator, very sneaky. He slips into your life, camouflaging himself as just one of the boys. He seduces in very subtle ways, he pushes things forward without forcing you,” Van Wyk said.
“I was groomed. I never felt brutalised but I think it had a massive effect on me psychologically. He gave money, he sponsored sports events, he was very generous, a family dentist ... He always had boys around him; he would entice them with gifts. Word got round that he had blue movies. It was a naughty thing sought out by teenage boys.
“I worked for him at his practice – a holiday job for pocket money. The first time I saw porn was there. He had a video camera that could play back tapes. He would invite me to his house to watch the videos. Slowly it became normal to go there and watch porn; he’d get you in the right state and that led to mutual masturbation.”
Van Wyk said he had tried calculating how many boys like him there were. “A relative said he tried to fondle him; a very close friend of mine; it was so many of us; he tried his luck with all the boys. He should have been stopped in the 1980s.”
The worst thing, said Van Wyk, was that many adults in town knew of Geldenhuys’ reputation. “They would warn you he’s into boys and that he might cross the line.”
Geldenhuys was arrested for committing indecent acts on minors and convicted of four counts in 1991. Geldenhuys said of Van Wyk’s allegations last week: “I made a confession to the investigating officer; I pleaded guilty in court and was punished.”
He denied “doing anything” to Van Wyk’s relative or ever possessing pornography.
Geldenhuys left Balfour after the scandal. His three-year sentence was suspended for five years and he was ordered to see a psychologist for 18 months and serve 2 000 hours of periodical imprisonment.
But his licence would not be revoked by the HPCSA until 1996, allowing him to buy into a dental practice in Mahikeng’s Riviera Park suburb where Molefe met him.
“My parents took me to get braces to correct my overbite around 1993. I was 12 going on 13. I’d go after school. My mother went with me the first couple of times, but she dropped me off by myself thereafter and would pick me up when I was done,” Molefe said.
“Geldenhuys began his abuse by rubbing my stomach while he was treating me. I was reclined in his chair, facing up. He then moved his hand down to rub my penis over my jeans. I froze when he first did that. Surprise. Shock. Disbelief.
“Then, to my horror, my body reacted to his touch. I got an erection, adding confusion to all the other feelings. That was how it went during just about every session for almost two years. The longer it went on the more difficult it became to say anything.”
Molefe said he ended up feeling “complicit”. “Geldenhuys would never molest me when anyone else was in the room. I remember one time when a staff member knocked on the door and entered, Geldenhuys immediately pulled his hand away from my crotch and pretended to have been examining my mouth. That told me he knew what he was doing was wrong. He didn’t stop, though.”
Molefe’s mother, he said, blamed herself. “She was furious when I told her. She wanted to lay charges. I talked her out of it because it was all still deeply embarrassing.” Geldenhuys did not respond to Molefe’s claims, saying he did not remember him.
Molefe has started a social media account and website called Justice Reclaimed and two other men from Mahikeng have come forward with accounts.
When the HPCSA suspended him, Geldenhuys found a job as a bus driver in Pretoria.
A Supreme Court of Appeal judgment details how, as a bus driver, Geldenhuys, then 42 in 1998, met a Mrs B on an evangelical tour of Mozambique. He befriended her and she trusted him with her sons, aged 7 and 14.
The elder boy’s allegations resulted in Geldenhuys being found guilty of indecent assault and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
The boy testified that Geldenhuys sat next to him and began fondling him on the tour bus at an airport, in a hotel room in Mpumalanga, the parking lot of a church and in his Pretoria family home.
His parents were struggling financially and Geldenhuys would lend them money and buy gifts for the boys. The boy testified that he kept what was happening a secret and when he was 16 Geldenhuys penetrated him.
Geldenhuys, who repeatedly denied the allegations in court, appealed his sentence, which was reduced to four years by the Constitutional Court based on outdated laws around the age of consent for gay men.
He spent four years in Pretoria Central prison. But his licence has been neither revoked nor suspended since 1998, which is how he came to practise in Midrand for almost 10 years.
After City Press made an appointment with him, his employer said no more appointments would be taken for him and that she’d not received any complaints about him of a sexual nature.
She told City Press her dentists were not left alone and there were no doors in her open-plan surgery.
Westminster paedophile accuser 'Nick' identified
as judge lifts legal restriction
as judge lifts legal restriction
Media win right to reveal name of Carl Beech, 50, who faces 13 charges
The Independent
Carl Beech prompted an investigation into claims of a Westminster paedophile ring ( )
The man known as “Nick” whose allegations sparked the Westminster sex abuse probe can be identified after a judge lifted a legal restriction.
Carl Beech, 50, who is accused of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of fraud, appeared at Newcastle Crown Court via video link.
Judge Paul Sloan QC, the Recorder of Newcastle, lifted a reporting restriction that prevented the media from identifying the defendant.
No pleas have been entered, and Mr Beech will stand trial on 7 May next year. The hearing, which has been put back, will take place at Newcastle Crown Court and should last six to eight weeks.
Last month Mr Beech’s barrister Raymond Tully told a court: “We anticipate that the matter will be fully contested.”
The Metropolitan Police launched Operation Midland after it received allegations of a VIP paedophile ring operating in Westminster.
However, the £2.5m probe closed after finding no evidence of any wrongdoing.
In September, Northumbria Police passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service, which led to Beech being charged.
Minor hockey coach charged with luring a child,
sexual exploitation, in Alberta
sexual exploitation, in Alberta
The Frank Lacroix Arena in Fort McMurray, Alta. on June 12, 2016.
Vincent McDermott/Fort McMurray Today/Postmedia Network
A 31-year-old minor hockey coach has been charged with sexual offences involving a child.
Police released few details about the investigation, but confirmed in a Monday media statement that officers began investigating the Fort McMurray man after a complaint was made to police regarding sexual offences.
RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Chris Warren said all charges were related to events that occurred this past year while the accused was a volunteer hockey coach with Fort McMurray Minor Hockey. He was not able to release the ages of any minors involved.
In a brief media statement sent Monday, police said “allegations of this nature seriously and continue to make this file an investigative priority. Necessary victim support services have been made available to those affected by this investigation,” the release said.
Steven Charles Adams has been charged with luring a child, sexual assault and sexual exploitation. He has been released on bail and is scheduled to appear in Fort McMurray Provincial Court on Jan. 9, 2019.
Anyone with information about this incident or criminal activity in Wood Buffalo is asked to contact Wood Buffalo RCMP at 780-788-4040 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS). Tips to Crime Stoppers are always anonymous and can also be sent to tipsubmit.com.
‘Stop killing women’: Israeli cities grind to a halt as thousands demand end to domestic violence
Women block the entrance to Jerusalem as part of a strike protesting the 24 murdered women in domestic violence related events this year, December 4, 2018 © Global Look Press / Nir Alon
Highways and intersections across Israel came to a standstill on Tuesday as thousands of women blocked the streets, some lying in fake blood, to demand the government takes action to end the growing violence against women.
The strike began in Tel Aviv at 9.30AM, as women targeted a major interchange, causing hours worth of delays as they flooded onto the road to create traffic chaos in the busy city. As the day progressed, similar actions rolled out across the city’s highways and interchanges.The nationwide women’s strike was called following the brutal murder of two teenage girls killed in separate attacks last week. Their deaths bring the number of women murdered in domestic violence incidents in Israel to 24 in 2018.
(See the two stories immediately below).
In Jerusalem, graphic scenes of women lying across the road in fake blood welcomed commuters parked outside the entrance to the city, blocked from entering by the protesters.
Beside them lay teddy bears along with death notices of the women murdered in cases of domestic violence. Others held placards with “Stop killing women!”
“Enough! Tired! Condemn every rapist!” shouted the protesters.
In Tel Aviv’s central Habima Square, a poignant installation of over 200 shoes painted red was laid out to mark the protest, while a nationwide 24-minute period of silence was held at 10 AM as a tribute to the victims.
The culmination of the strike is expected to attract thousands at a mass rally in the city’s Rabin Square this evening.
Organized by a group known as “I’m a Woman, I’m Striking” and an umbrella of women's groups under the “Red Flag coalition,” the strike has gained widespread backing with over 300 organizations, including labor unions, private companies, and local governments supporting the strike.
On Monday, the opposition Zionist Union brought a motion of no-confidence against the government in the Knesset over its failure to tackle the issue. However, it failed to pass due to the coalition government abstaining.
In a statement published on Monday night, the organizers reiterated their demand that the government immediately releases a $67 million emergency fund promised but never delivered in last year’s budget to tackle domestic violence, stating “actions are required, not empty words.”
Police arrest fifth suspect in murder of Galilee teen
17-year-old male allegedly involved in killing of Yara Ayoub taken into custody, will face judge on Wednesday for hearing on his remand
By TOI 
Yara Ayoub, 16, from the Galilee village of Jish. (Hadashot screen capture)
Police on Tuesday arrested a fifth suspect in the killing of a Galilee teenage girl whose death fueled a wave of women’s protests throughout the country.
The suspect, a 17-year-old male from Jish, the Galilee town of the victim, Yara Ayoub, will be brought before the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday for an extension of his remand.
Sixteen-year-old Ayoub’s killing last week shocked the quiet village of some 3,000, leading local schools and businesses to close in protest. Thousands accompanied her casket through the streets to the village’s Muslim cemetery.
Police have already arrested four other people: a 50-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man; the primary suspect in the murder, a 28-year-old man from the village who is believed to be the last person to have seen Ayoub alive before she disappeared; and the 53-year-old father of the primary suspect, who is believed to have aided his son after the crime was committed.
Many of the details of the investigation, including the identities of the suspects, are under a court-ordered gag order for fear that their publication could hinder the investigation.
Ayoub was last seen on November 21 at 5 p.m. when she walked into a bakery in Jish. She disappeared after that, triggering a five-day search in the village and neighboring region until her body was found in an alley next to a business establishment in the village last Monday.
Her death, along with that of 13-year-old Sylvana Tsegai in Tel Aviv — allegedly carried out by her mother’s former partner — led to a public outcry over government inaction on violence targeting women.
Manhunt ends as Eritrean suspect in murder
of 13-year-old girl is caught
By STUART WINER and TOI STAFF
Sylvana Tsegai, who was found dead in Tel Aviv, November 26, 2018.
The manhunt for an Eritrean national wanted for the murder of a young girl in Tel Aviv that has shocked the country came to an end Wednesday night as police arrested Tesfebarhan Tesfasion after a brief chase.
Tesfasion had been on the run since the body of Sylvana Tsegai, 13, was found in her home in the city on Monday. He was reportedly her mother’s ex-boyfriend.
A member of the public recognized Tesfasion from photos published in media and on social networks and alerted police, Hebrew media reported. When cops arrived at the location, near the Carmel open market in south Tel Aviv, Tesfasion tried to flee but was quickly apprehended.
The killing of Tsegai and Yara Ayoub, 16, whose body was found in her Galilee home several hours earlier, has renewed calls for action to prevent violence against women.
An undated picture of Eritrean national Tesfebarhan Tesfasion who is suspected of murdering his partner’s teenage daughter on November 26, 2018. (Israel Police)
In an interview with Hadashot news broadcast shortly before the announcement of Tesfasion’s capture, Tsegai’s mother, Malay Guawi described her agony over the death of her daughter.
“I had one girl and now she is dead,” Guawi, also an Eritrean asylum seeker, told the Hadashot news channel in an interview broadcast Wednesday evening. “I want my girl to come back now,”
She described Tesfasion as “not a good person.”
“I took him into my home and he made a mess. I did not know that he would do this to my girl.”
On Tuesday, Tesfasion’s father told the media his son was “crazy” and he did not care if the police killed him.
According to Hadashot, Tesfasion entered Israel in 2010 through the Egyptian border and is known to authorities for previous offenses. He was sentenced to one year in prison for drunk driving and forging a driving license.
He also previously escaped from a holding facility for African migrants and allegedly tried to obtain an extension for his permit to stay in the country by using a forged marriage license. Tens of thousands of African migrants entered Israel from Egypt in the last decade and many now live in Tel Aviv.
Tsegai’s body is at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute awaiting an autopsy before it is flown back to Eritrea for burial, according to the channel.
Initial results of the examination show she was sexually assaulted and then strangled to death, Channel 10 television news reported.
According to reports, Tsegai was known to welfare authorities as a victim of domestic violence before the killing. She reportedly called police on Saturday to complain about Tesfasion being in her home.
Fake online Russian clothes shop
offered child prostitutes & porn to clients
Russia’s telecom watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has blocked a website, which used the guise of a designer clothes shop for minors to offer the services of underage prostitutes and distribute child pornography.
The online shopping platform has been added to the list of Russia’s banned websites on Tuesday and ceased its operation within hours.
Cpidzhak.ru website contained photos of children aged between five and eight years, offering to buy or rent the clothes they were sporting.
Each picture was followed by the name and the age of the model, while the prices were quite unreasonable even for designer outfits.
Renting a piece of clothing for an hour cost between 35,000 and 100,000 rubles (around $530 and $1,500). The prices didn’t seem to depend on the brand at all, but rather on the age of the models, being higher for the younger ones.
Internet users first sounded the alarm over a suspicious website, with Roskomnadzor swiftly taking action.
The fake online shop “distributed information about sexual services involving minors, contained pornographic descriptions of children,” the watchdog said.
Roscomnadzor’s experts ruled that the website was designed to “create the motivation to engage in intimate relations with minors and justify sexual behavior towards them.”
The criminal activities of the creators of the shopping platform have been reported to the police, it added.
The watchdog is now working to detect the mirrors of the website so that they can be blocked as well.
And are they working to identify the children on the website, or is that a police job?
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