The Free State High Court has sentenced a 58-year-old Welkom lawyer to three life sentences for raping five minor children. In 2019, two of the victims, who are the lawyer’s stepdaughters, disclosed the abuse to their mother.

Investigations revealed that the abuse began in 2007, when the youngest victim was seven, and continued until 2017.

The five victims, his two stepdaughters, one niece, and two of their friends, were all under 14 years old.

In a statement, the National Prosecuting Authority says the lawyer groomed the children, exposed them to pornography, sexually assaulted them and raped three of them.

He has also produced child pornography.

During sentencing, Advocate Amanda Bester argued that the man posed a severe danger to society.

She highlighted his betrayal of family trust, his duty as a father figure and his legal knowledge, which he exploited to abuse vulnerable children, warranting his removal from society.

The perpetrator is convicted of rape, indecent assault, sexual grooming, exposure of pornography to a child and sexual exploitation of a child, among others.

The cumulative sentence totals 68 years, excluding the three life terms.