A Facebook administrator who landed in hot water for a controversial Facebook Page where a grieving father was defamed has stepped up and apologised.
The page "Murder she wrote investigations and discussions" where the death of Heidi Scheepers and her two children was discussed at length, published an apology on Tuesday morning.
Ettienne Scheepers who is the husband of Heidi Scheepers, claims through his attorneys, A Chimes van Wyk, that the comments and discussions on the page were nothing more than a platform where he is being grossly defamed and which has caused and continues to cause him grave reputational harm as well as to his business interests.
Some of the discussions on the Facebook page accused Scheepers of killing his wife, plotting her murder, having an affair and driving his wife to suicide.
Heidi and her two children were killed in October when their VW Caravelle was found partially submerged in the ocean at the bottom of a 100-meter high cliff at Voëlklip.
The bodies of Hugo and Heidi were found soon after the wreckage was spotted and an autopsy revealed that both had died as a result of drowning.
The body of their six-year-old daughter was never found and the search has since been called off.
Even though the apology was published after the cut off time and not the exact words that were requested, it was accepted by Mr. Scheepers.
A Consultant Attorney at Chimes van Wyk Donald Curtis says the apology is accepted and therefore, at this stage, no further legal steps will be taken.
The page which was run by three administrators is now only run by one single founding member, who issued an apology in her own words.
Two other administrators, Chantal Strydom Dobson and Diane van Rensburg have since been removed as admins from the page.
Algoa FM News has learned that their removal as administrators does not allow them to avoid liability or create a legal defense regarding this particular matter in future.
According to a legal expert, courts will look at who the admins were during the relevant time period of the posts, should legal steps be taken in the future.
Here is the apology posted by the founder of the page:
