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Questions over why child rape accused Adrian Wilson-Forbes did not report the "extortion" he claimed to have suffered at the hands of one of his alleged victims dominated proceedings in the George Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
Knysna businessman Wilson-Forbes, 60, testified on Monday that he had been "set up" by one of his alleged victims (now 22 years old but 11 at the time) who had held him at knifepoint and "forced" him to pose for pornographic photographs with a naked eight-year-old girl.
However state prosecutor Evadne Kortje sought to pick holes in Wilson-Forbes's claims, foremost that he did not report the matter to police immediately after he had dropped the boy and the girl off after the pictures had been taken in a secluded area at Herolds Bay on March 29 last year.
"You simply carried on driving back to Knynsa. Why did you do this, if you knew that a crime had been committed and you claim that you felt bad for the girl who you say was also a victim," Kortje asked.
Wilson-Forbes responded that he was "dazed and confused and did not know what to do".
Emotions ran high when Kortje ran through the 29 photographs with Wilson-Forbes, pointing out that in some photographs he was casually resting his hand against the eight-year-old's leg and he did not appear to be showing any signs of distress.
She also asked if it was the boy's intention to blackmail Wilson-Forbes, why in the photographs his shirt was undone and he was wearing a cap and dark glasses, in addition to the fact that he did not even feature in some photographs.
To this line of questioning he frequently responded "I don't know".
According to Wilson-Forbes, he had agreed to pay the boy R3000 so that his camera's memory card containing the pornographic photographs could be returned to him and he could delete them. However, he claimed the boy had already given the memory card to the police to build their case against him before it was returned to him by the boy.
But both Kortje and Judge Patricia Goliath reminded Wilson-Forbes that this was not how extortion worked, and that the boy would have nothing to gain if he had already given him up to the police.
Kortje also asked why Wilson-Forbes had deleted the photographs from the memory card, if, as he said, he had been a victim of extortion.
"These photographs were the only proof you had, and you deleted them? These photos could have proved your case to the police."
