A former teacher in Worcester has been acquitted of rape charges after the Western Cape High Court upheld his appeal, highlighting significant discrepancies in the complainant's testimony and the evidence supporting his alibi.
Image: FILE
A traffic fine payment has secured the acquittal of a man sentenced to life for rape.
Jeremy Claassen, a former Life Orientation teacher at a school in Worcester, will be immediately released from prison after the Western Cape High Court upheld his appeal against conviction and sentencing, and acquitted him of rape.
Last year, Claassen was sentenced after he was charged with two counts of rape in that he is alleged to have penetrated the complainant, a 13-year-old Grade 8 learner, without her consent, on two occasions.
Both incidents were alleged to have transpired at the school and in the classroom, respectively, on February 7 and 12, 2020. Claassen was convicted on the first count but acquitted on the second.
He has been incarcerated on these convictions since May 14, 2025.
During trial, Claassen testified that he was at court paying a traffic fine during the alleged incident, supported by a payment receipt.
The trial court rejected this, speculating that another person could have made the payment and noting that the school principal’s evidence did not confirm Claassen’s absence.
Yesterday, Judge Gayaat Da Silva-Salie detailed that there had been a number of discrepancies in the complainant’s testimony.
“For example, to the medical officer, she reported that the classroom was empty and she proceeded to charge her phone. That she attended the classroom between 11am and 11:30am well before second break. The teacher only entered the room afterwards but during her testimony, she testified that the teacher was seated at his desk.
“Single-witness evidence must be clear and satisfactory in all material respects. In my view, the court a quo failed to address these contradictions, and it merely accepted the complainant’s version as probable, without consideration of various inconsistencies, whilst at the same time finding that the events are consistent with the medical report which clearly is not the case.
“The complainant also veered between the timing of the incident in that initially she went to charge her phone in the classroom of the appellant during the two breaktimes and then changing it to having transpired during the second break of the day,” said Judge Da Silva-Salie.
In his appeal against conviction and sentencing, Claassen submitted - among other grounds for appeal - that the trial court erred in convicting him based on the complainant’s single-witness testimony, in that there were both material inherent contradictions as well as substantial material contradictions between her testimony and the historical account provided to the medical doctor.
During trial, Claassen testified that he had been issued with a traffic fine, which stipulated a court date of February 7, 2020.
The judgment detailed: “During that morning, after 7am and before the first school period at 7:30am, he informed the Mr. Titus, the principal, that he had to attend to the fine, which was due on that date. Mr. Titus allowed him to use his vehicle to sort out the fine as his own vehicle was in for a service…
“Exhibit D, the traffic fine enquiry report, records that the fine was paid at the Worcester Magistrates (Municipal) Court on February 7, 2020 at 11:55am.”
It was the pupil’s version that on February 7, 2020, she went to Claassen’s classroom to charge her phone. She approached him, and after he closed the classroom door and told her to sit on a bench.
According to the complainant, the teacher made advances towards her despite her resistance, and he raped her in the classroom.
Judge Da Silva-Salie said: “The contradictions in the complainant’s evidence were not immaterial. They concerned the sequence, manner, and details of the alleged assault. It extended beyond incidental detail and bore directly upon the coherence and reliability of the complainant’s version on the central issue, that is, whether the appellant had raped her on the date and place as alleged.
“In a matter resting solely on the evidence of a child, such contradictions required careful judicial engagement and introspection.”
Emphasis was placed on the complainant's demeanor while giving testimony, overshadowing an analytical engagement with evidence before the court.
“In the present matter, the emphasis placed on the complainant’s emotional presentation appears to have overshadowed a proper analytical engagement with the material contradictions in her testimony, as well as between her viva voce evidence and the narrative contained in the J88.
“Credibility cannot be determined solely by observing a witness’s distress; it must be assessed against the internal consistency of the version, its consistency with prior statements, and its alignment with objective evidence.
“By affording decisive weight to demeanour while failing to interrogate material discrepancies, the court a quo misdirected itself in its evaluation of the evidence.”
Judge Da Silva-Salie ordered that Classen must be released from the correctional facility where he is detained immediately and without delay.
Cape Times