adminCape Town – The police have launched a probe into the complaints of sexual abuse at Bishop’s Diocesan College in Cape Town.
According to the Sunday Times, police confirmed that the matter would be investigated by a unit that deals with child protection and sexual offences.
The newspaper reported that a senior investigator had met the school’s principal Guy Pearson and with the father of a boy who reported a teacher for inappropriate behaviour in 2009.
However, it is believed that prosecution will happen only if further complaints are lodged.
It emerged late last month that the school has been embroiled in a sex-abuse cover up scandal – involving two separate incidents – that goes back two decades.
The first involved a former pupil who was allegedly sexually abused by a fellow pupil in 2012, while the second involved a teacher and a Grade 11 pupil in 1990.
Bishop’s, however, promotes itself as an independent boys’ school with a long history, a strong academic ethos combined with a commitment to all-roundedness and a proud record of achievements.
On its website it states it is a high achieving school in all areas – academically, on the sports fields and in a wide variety of social and cultural activities. Bishop’s old boys include well known and highly successful businessmen and sportsmen – among them entrepreneur and astronaut Mark Shuttleworth, cricketer Herschelle Gibbs and professor of exercise and sports science Tim Noakes from the University of Cape Town. -Sapa
derick.khumalo