SA Pupils 'traumatised' after mortuary visit
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Johannesburg - A 28-year-old volunteer at a police station has been accused of child abuse after she took a group of students (17/18 year olds) to a mortuary as a form of punishment.
Around 50 pupils were on a bus on their way to a career day at the University of Pretoria.
A school headmaster then found "very powerful liquor" in the pupils' bags, a reliable source said.
"They refused to tell who had sold them the alcohol and so the headmaster took them to the Sekobeng police station," the source said.
At the station, members of the victims support unit were asked to take over the case because most of the pupils were under the age of 18.
A woman at the police station who works with minors, said she had had enough, and then took nine of the pupils, five boys and four girls, to the to the mortuary to "learn a lesson".
Some of the children refused to go further once they had reached the gate of the mortuary. They hung onto the security fence, but the woman forced them to enter.
"Inside she showed them many cadavers and the children had to watch a post mortem," the source said.
"The body of an infant who had been burned to death, a man who had been stabbed to death, a person who had been savaged by a dog and someone who was killed in a car accident were shown to the children."
Afterwards, they had to clean the windows and floor of the mortuary.
Furious parents laid a charge of child abuse against the woman, a colleague of hers and a man who worked at the mortuary.
"One of the girls is refusing to eat and is struggling to sleep at night because every time she closes them she sees the body parts," the source said.
Prosecutors have refused to lay charges because they said it does not qualify as child abuse, the report said.
They really do things differently in Africa.
Around 50 pupils were on a bus on their way to a career day at the University of Pretoria.
A school headmaster then found "very powerful liquor" in the pupils' bags, a reliable source said.
"They refused to tell who had sold them the alcohol and so the headmaster took them to the Sekobeng police station," the source said.
At the station, members of the victims support unit were asked to take over the case because most of the pupils were under the age of 18.
A woman at the police station who works with minors, said she had had enough, and then took nine of the pupils, five boys and four girls, to the to the mortuary to "learn a lesson".
Some of the children refused to go further once they had reached the gate of the mortuary. They hung onto the security fence, but the woman forced them to enter.
"Inside she showed them many cadavers and the children had to watch a post mortem," the source said.
"The body of an infant who had been burned to death, a man who had been stabbed to death, a person who had been savaged by a dog and someone who was killed in a car accident were shown to the children."
Afterwards, they had to clean the windows and floor of the mortuary.
Furious parents laid a charge of child abuse against the woman, a colleague of hers and a man who worked at the mortuary.
"One of the girls is refusing to eat and is struggling to sleep at night because every time she closes them she sees the body parts," the source said.
Prosecutors have refused to lay charges because they said it does not qualify as child abuse, the report said.
They really do things differently in Africa.
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