Damning new accusations have surfaced against rapist former teacher Neil le Roux in which he has been portrayed as long having been a master manipulator and sexual groomer of young girls.
Le Roux, 66, was last week sentenced to 18 years for rape, sexual assault and sexual grooming in the East London regional court.
He was granted leave to appeal the sentence which would see him effectively serving eight years behind bars, and is out on bail.
The Daily Dispatch has spoken to two women who related their experiences of Le Roux 40 years ago when he was a married teacher in his twenties.
One, a woman called Gill, who is now 57 and lives in Gauteng, alleged Le Roux had groomed her over a period of two years, to the point where she had had sex with him at a swimming pool when she was just 17 years old and in matric.
The other, Wendy, 57, who now lives in the Southern Cape, said he had sexually groomed her and had a fan base among the schoolgirls who’d called themselves “mushrooms”.
These claims are strongly denied by Le Roux. His attorney, Roger Smith, said his client “emphatically denies these false and malicious allegations”.
Gill contacted this newspaper earlier this year saying she wanted to break her silence. She said she wanted to stop Le Roux from hurting others but did not want her full identity revealed so as to protect her family.
‘Teacher offered me kissing lessons’
She said she had not laid charges against him years ago because she had blamed herself for the abuse. “I felt it was my fault and only stopped blaming myself when I was 44 and then I thought it was too late to do anything about it legally. But I want to say that I feel so proud of the young girl (in the current case) who will take him off the streets. I want to put her mother on a pedestal for believing her and supporting her.”
Gill put the Daily Dispatch in touch with Wendy, who’d attended the same school and who said the guitar-playing teacher had offered to give her kissing lessons.
Both women said Le Roux, who was in his late twenties at the time, had had a “mesmerising” effect on many of his teenage pupils who developed crushes on him and queued for his attention.
Bible study, quiet walks
“We were called the mushrooms by the girls who were not besotted with him,” said Gill, who told the story of how the teacher’s abuse began with a kiss and ended with sex a couple of years later. “They called us mushrooms because we popped up all over the place.”
She said Le Roux, who at the time was married with two children, would oversee the hostel girls’ homework prep in the library.
“We were all so taken with him. He was cooler than the other teachers. He had gorgeous long, dark curly hair and he was in good shape. He was our swimming coach and would swim 100 lengths with us as a warm-up. He took us for Bible study and played guitar and sang. He was so engaging and easy to speak to. And he showed an interest in us when we all thought we were ugly.”
When Le Roux asked her to take a walk with him to the school’s tennis courts, Gill felt singled out.
“I remember we sat on the slatted benches and he put his arm around me and said ‘let it go’. I remember wondering what that meant and the next thing his tongue was in my mouth and his hand was under my shirt and I thought ‘is this what letting go means?’”
She said the encounter, which took place when she was 15, made her feel important.
“I thought he was the bee’s knees. I felt honoured. I had always wondered what it would be like to kiss a man and [after this] I felt educated. I felt like a VIP.”
When she realised other girls were also “going for walks” with Le Roux, she assumed he was also kissing them. “I felt a bit jealous, but learnt to control it. I remember on numerous times seeing him coming out from under the stage with a girl.”
Painting a shocking picture of a man who allegedly took advantage of his authority to exploit teenagers, Gill said the “mushrooms” who lived in hostel would sometimes be invited to the family man’s home for a weekend braai and videos.
She said after Bible study a group of “mushrooms” would linger afterwards hoping for time alone with him. “Then he would end up in a car with a girl or going for a walk.”
When she was 17 a drive in the teacher’s yellow Beetle one summer evening culminated in a skinny dip in a public swimming pool.
Skinny dipping, sex
“I remember on the way we drove past a girl and she waved at him and he said: ‘I’ve got it made; life is good.’
“We didn't have our costumes or towels so after we swam I dried off using my clothes and then we had sex under the diving board on the grass. Afterwards he told me how bad I was at sex. It was like a school lesson.”
She said when she next saw Le Roux she thought he would be happy to see her. “But it was just the opposite. He was nonchalant and I remember the disappointment.”
She described being under his spell and that she felt like she had been in his “bubble”.
“It took me many years to realise what had happened. Whenever I thought about it I would fast-track past it and push the thoughts aside.”
It was only when she was living overseas aged 37 that she was finally able to confide in a church group about her ordeal. “Until then I had been too ashamed to talk about it. I think the Monica Lewinsky case made it okay to speak out.”
Even though she has since met up with old schoolfriends and compared notes about the teacher, she does not want to make her name public to protect members of her family.
“People from that time at school started talking openly about it. It made me realise none of this was okay. I have come to terms now with the fact that I was not responsible, but I still feel guilty about the victims who came after me.”
In a phone call with the Daily Dispatch, Wendy, a businesswoman involved in the tourism industry, told a similar story of the teacher’s sexual grooming techniques in the late 1970s when she was 16 and 17.
She too spoke of being a “mushroom” and having a crush on the teacher who would “lock eyes” with her when she looked up from her books in class and who played guitar with her in a school Christian group.
“Of my Standard 9 class of 17 girls, five of us were intense mushrooms. Some were ‘sitting on the fence’ mushrooms and didn’t fraternise with him and then there were the girls dead against him. They knew something was off-kilter, but I was very naïve. We were his rah-rah girls and he lapped it up.”
Le Roux became her confidante. “He would totally engage and listen to me.”
She said he often came to her home near the school to practise guitar with her and she was alone with him one day when she bent over to put an LP on a record player.
‘I didn’t know it was sexual grooming’
“As I stood up he was right behind me and put his arms around me and held on. My heart was beating but thankfully my dad came down the driveway and Le Roux left. I knew it was wrong because he was married, but it made me feel special.”
The woman said she frequently received lifts home from Le Roux and one night when she was in Standard 9 (Grade 11), after guitar practice she had confided in him in his car.
“He knew I didn’t have a boyfriend and I said I wouldn’t know what to do if I had a boyfriend because I was so shy. He said I should not feel that way, that it was natural.
“He had his arm on my seat and said he could teach me to kiss. I thought this was wrong because he was married and told him I needed to think about it.
“I thought about it and decided it was a good idea and that I wanted it to happen and so I waited for him outside the library but there was always a queue of girls waiting to talk to him. They were all vying for his attention. Eventually I said to him: ‘About the other night. I’ve given it a lot of thought. I want you to show me’. He looked me straight in the eye and said it was not a good idea.
“I was devastated then, but now I know I dodged a bullet. I think maybe he didn’t trust me enough. I think he put the brakes on it once I declined his [original] advance.”
She said since hearing about the latest charges against her former teacher, she had decided to speak out.
“I never laid charges because back then I didn’t know what sexual grooming was. I would not have done anything to hurt him because at the time I did not feel violated. But if everyone keeps quiet, people like this continue to get away with it and why should they? To damage someone else?
“I would like to see him behind bars. He should be held accountable.”
Both women followed Le Roux’s trial with a keen interest. Wendy, who referred to Le Roux as a predator, said she wanted to see him “rot in jail”.
Gill said she would have preferred him to serve the full 18 years in jail. “I hope the appeal brings a higher sentence.”
When he convicted Le Roux earlier this year, Magistrate Ignatius Kitching said he had abused his position at a top primary school to manipulate and commit sexual offences against the three complainants – two student teachers and a Grade 7 pupil – in a modus operandi that was premeditated and predatory.
Kitching found Le Roux had raped the 32-year-old student teacher and sexually assaulted the 29-year-old student teacher, whom he’d hugged tightly and whose ear he had licked after a school Valentine’s Day dance.
Kitching said the schoolgirl, who was 13 when Le Roux became her Grade 7 teacher, had felt “entrapped” by the much older man who’d used his position as a trusted family friend and popular teacher to kiss and hug her and make inappropriate sexual comments.
The magistrate agreed with her mother’s testimony that Le Roux had been preparing her daughter for sex...