Court gavel
A former South African teacher and self-confessed paedophile is liable to be extradited to stand trial in Scotland.
Iain Wares, 84, is sought by the prosecuting authorities in Scotland to stand trial on various counts relating to sexual offences, allegedly perpetrated on teenage boys at elite schools in the Edinburgh area during the 1970’s.
Wares challenged his extradition in the Western Cape High Court. The court found that he is liable to be extradited, but remitted the matter back to the justice minister for the final decision.
He was partially successful in his review application as the court found that four of the charges he was due to face, have lapsed in law. The court, however, found that the remaining three charges have not lapsed and if extradited, he will have to answer to these charges.
Judges Patric Gamble and Robert Henney ordered that the matter of whether or not to extradite Wares be remitted back to the minister for consideration on such terms as she considers fit.
In earlier submissions made to the minister, Wares explained that after he graduated from a local university with a degree in psychology in 1962, he took up teaching posts at various boys’ schools, notwithstanding the fact that he did not have a formal qualification as an educator.
He describes how, over time, his urges to sexually molest learners overtook him to the extent that he could not control himself and his conduct became habitual.
He said that in 1967 he consulted a local mental health practitioner who recommended certain therapeutic interventions. When these proved ineffective, it was suggested to him that he should seek further help in Scotland from a therapist who specialised in the treatment of his condition.
He subsequently relocated to Scotland for that purpose in 1967. While there for treatment, he qualified as a teacher and worked at exclusive boys-only schools where he once again committed various sexual offences, he stated in his submissions.
He said that after being found out when a learner complained to the principal about being sexually molested, he lost his work in 1979 and decided to return to South Africa accompanied by his wife whom he had met and married in Scotland.
According to him he disclosed his past to his wife at that time and since his return home has not indulged in any further sexual offences.
His identity and whereabouts came to the attention of certain of his alleged victims who pressed charges against him in Scotland. The eventual result of this was that in 2018 the High Commissioner for the UK in South Africa requested the authorities to extradite him.
They want him to stand trial in Edinburgh on charges of what are described in Scottish law as “lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour” and a single charge of so-called “indecent assault”.
A warrant of arrest for his extradition was executed by the police and he appeared before a magistrate the following day.
The magistrate determined that, on the strength of his admissions, Wares was liable to be extradited to Scotland and he was released on bail pending the decision of the minister to order his removal to the UK.
Wares meanwhile made representations to the minister not to extradite him and said that it would not be in the interests of justice to do so and that the effect of such an order would be “too severe a punishment” on him as he is in poor health.
In his submissions to the minister he purported to make a clean breast of things and admitted his crimes in considerable detail. The minister, however, decided that he should be surrendered to the UK to stand trial.
He turned to the high court to have the decision by the magistrate that he was liable to be extradited, pending the final decision of the minister, overturned. Wares’ legal team said the magistrate’s decision was flawed in several aspects and they sought to appeal the ruling. Simultaneously they asked that the minister’s decision be reviewed and overturned.
A counter-review by the minister, that the magistrate was not entitled in law to grant Wares bail, was upheld by the court. Judges Gamble and Henney, however, exercised their discretion and decided to extend his bail, pending the final decision by the minister regarding his extradition.
Pretoria News
zelda.venter@inl.co.za
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