A Cape Town lawyer who exploited street children, paying them amounts of R100 for sexual deeds has been sentenced in the Wynberg Regional Court.
Theo Hartzenberg, a former Legal Aid attorney, was convicted on charges of statutory rape, sexual exploitation of a child, and engaging in sexual services of a person 18 years or older in February.
During the trial, the State brought 20 charges against Hartzenberg and he pleaded not guilty to all charges brought against him.
State Prosecutor Jacqueline Hefele ran a full trial.
The incidents took place in 2021. Many witnesses, who were Hartzenberg’s victims, testified that they were paid to penetrate him.
One of the witnesses, a 21-year-old man who has been homeless since he was 18, testified that he knew Hartzenberg as a lawyer who stayed in the block of flats in Muizenberg close to Muizenberg beach.
The witness said he got to know Hartzenberg from other boys and met him when he was with a friend. He saw Hartzenberg coming from his flat heading towards the beach.
Hartzenberg went behind a wall with a red roof and the witness and his friend followed. Hartzenberg called the friend, and the witness had to be a lookout as the two had sex. The witness was paid R100 for being a lookout. The following day, Hartzenberg, the friend, and another boy had sex and they were each paid R100, the court heard.
After the second incident, the witness told the court he had informed other boys they could have sex with Hartzenberg and get paid.
They would then sit and wait for him to come from his apartment to the beach, follow him, wait as he finished smoking, have sex, get paid R100, and then leave.
The court heard Hartzenberg would not speak to the boys. The witness admitted to using the money he received for food and glue (to sniffing) and mandrax.
The court heard sex-for-money with Hartzenberg was a regular thing. Monday to Friday and on weekends, sex would take place in one of the ‘cookies’ (the colourful bungalows at Muizenberg Beach).
The witness alleged the boys would enter or go to the adjacent bungalow where they would get in one by one and have sex with Hartzenberg and he would pay them R100 each time.
A 16-year-old witness, who testified via CCTV camera facilities, corroborated the evidence of the first witness to a tee.
The court heard during his testimony that on the first occasion, he attempted to have sex with Hartzenberg, he could not get an erection and was paid R100. On other occasions, he and the other boys had sex with Hartzenberg at the ‘cookies’ on weekends and were each paid R100.
He further testified boys who could not get an erection would get paid R50.
He was a school learner but admitted he’d bunk school on Fridays and beg at the beach. The court heard his parents were unaware of this happening.
Hartzenberg refused to testify before he would call a witness to testify. This was not accepted by the court. Hartzenberg continued to refuse to testify in his own defence and the court closed the case.
The court accepted that Hartzenberg solicited the services of the complainants to provide him with sexual services in return for monetary payments. It found that the State proved its case.
Hartzenberg was sentenced to eight years direct imprisonment for statutory rape, with three years suspended for five years on condition he is not convicted for a similar charge during the period of suspension.
It also sentenced him to eight years direct imprisonment for sexual exploitation of a child and three months direct imprisonment for engaging in sexual services of a person older than 18 years, which was suspended for five years on condition that he is acquitted of committing a similar offence during the period of suspension. The court ordered the sentences it imposed on charges of statutory rape and sexual exploitation of a child to run concurrently, effectively sentencing him to eight years of direct imprisonment.
The court further ordered his name to be added to the National Child Protection Register, to be included in the National Register for Sex Offenders and declared him unfit to possess a firearm.
IOL