“MY whole future is gone.”
Half leaning on his bed, then sitting up and staring out of his bedroom window while Police Deputy Commissioner Marius Visser was conducting a search through his house, this was one of the remarks that former Judge Pio Teek made after hearing that the Police were investigating charges of rape, abduction and attempted rape against him. A video recording showing Teek (59) making this statement and escorting Visser through his house at Brakwater during the search was yesterday shown to Judge Ronnie Bosielo, who is presiding over Teek’s trial on eight charges, including two counts of rape and two counts of abduction.Teek is denying all the charges.He has only admitted that he took the two girls at the centre of the allegations – they were aged nine and ten at the time of the alleged incident on January 28 last year – to his home on a plot in the Brakwater area to give them food because, he claimed, they had complained to him that they were hungry.Visser led a team of Police officers who visited Teek’s home at Brakwater late on the afternoon of Saturday, January 29, last year.The video recording of the event shows Teek receiving the visitors while dressed in a bathrobe.He stood with his arms folded across his chest, his head tilted to the side, as he silently listened to Visser delivering what must have been crushing news: that the Police were investigating allegations of abduction, rape and attempted rape against him.”The allegation is that you provided them with liquor, more specifically beer, and also offered brandy to them, that you made them swim and thereafter touched them and also requested them to go with you to the bedroom.Which they eventually refused to do,” the video recording shows Visser telling Teek.Visser informed Teek – then still a Judge of Appeal of the Supreme Court – that the purpose of their visit was to search the premises to look for pornographic material, alcohol containers such as beer bottles or glasses that might have been used, semen, used condoms and also any cameras.Teek invited the officer to go ahead with his search.Visser not only figuratively, but also literally, had to pick through the then Judge’s dirty laundry.Throughout, Teek encouraged him to go ahead with his search.”Just go ahead.I have nothing to hide,” he remarked at one stage when Visser again asked if he could search in one area of the house.Having changed into clothes early on during the search, Teek carried a bottle of beer with him, occasionally taking a sip of it, while accompanying Visser around the house.At one stage, he was filmed sitting on a chair on his stoep with a beer standing in front of him, resting his chin on his hand and shaking his head as he appeared to be contemplating the impact of the events that were unfolding around him.When the search moved to his bedroom, Teek sat down on the bed.”My whole future is gone,” he remarked.”We just have to do what we have to do,” Visser answered.”I am glad I am not you,” Teek replied in Afrikaans, before switching to English.”This is the end of my life.What can I do? You think you do right but you do wrong.”Later on, sitting outside the house, still with a beer in his hand, Teek said to Visser: “This is the end of my career.Now I have to go and do something else.One also doesn’t know who is lying and who is telling the truth.That’s the problem, you don’t know anything.”He still made an attempt to make light of the situation, however, as he offered Visser a soft drink.”This is no bribe,” he added, laughing.Two days after that search, Visser arrested Teek as he lay in a hospital bed in Windhoek.He had been admitted to hospital because of his emotional state.”Weak, very weak.Gastric nerves, can’t eat anything,” Teek explained his condition to Visser, shows a second video recording, which was made of the arrest.A little over a week after that arrest, Teek was suspended from his post as Supreme Court Judge.On October 14 last year, Teek’s retirement from the judiciary was announced.”Although he denies all charges, he has accepted that, even if acquitted in the criminal trial and in the Judicial Service Commission investigation, it would not be possible for him to be able to return to the Bench and properly perform his functions in view of public perceptions after recent events,” the Office of the President stated in a press release in which his retirement was announced.As it turned out, the search of the house yielded nothing incriminating against Teek, the court also heard yesterday.The trial continues today.A video recording showing Teek (59) making this statement and escorting Visser through his house at Brakwater during the search was yesterday shown to Judge Ronnie Bosielo, who is presiding over Teek’s trial on eight charges, including two counts of rape and two counts of abduction.Teek is denying all the charges.He has only admitted that he took the two girls at the centre of the allegations – they were aged nine and ten at the time of the alleged incident on January 28 last year – to his home on a plot in the Brakwater area to give them food because, he claimed, they had complained to him that they were hungry.Visser led a team of Police officers who visited Teek’s home at Brakwater late on the afternoon of Saturday, January 29, last year.The video recording of the event shows Teek receiving the visitors while dressed in a bathrobe.He stood with his arms folded across his chest, his head tilted to the side, as he silently listened to Visser delivering what must have been crushing news: that the Police were investigating allegations of abduction, rape and attempted rape against him.”The allegation is that you provided them with liquor, more specifically beer, and also offered brandy to them, that you made them swim and thereafter touched them and also requested them to go with you to the bedroom.Which they eventually refused to do,” the video recording shows Visser telling Teek.Visser informed Teek – then still a Judge of Appeal of the Supreme Court – that the purpose of their visit was to search the premises to look for pornographic material, alcohol containers such as beer bottles or glasses that might have been used, semen, used condoms and also any cameras.Teek invited the officer to go ahead with his search.Visser not only figuratively, but also literally, had to pick through the then Judge’s dirty laundry.Throughout, Teek encouraged him to go ahead with his search.”Just go ahead.I have nothing to hide,” he remarked at one stage when Visser again asked if he could search in one area of the house.Having changed into clothes early on during the search, Teek carried a bottle of beer with him, occasionally taking a sip of it, while accompanying Visser around the house.At one stage, he was filmed sitting on a chair on his stoep with a beer standing in front of him, resting his chin on his hand and shaking his head as he appeared to be contemplating the impact of the events that were unfolding around him.When the search moved to his bedroom, Teek sat down on the bed.”My whole future is gone,” he remarked.”We just have to do what we have to do,” Visser answered.”I am glad I am not you,” Teek replied in Afrikaans, before switching to English.”This is the end of my life.What can I do? You think you do right but you do wrong.”Later on, sitting outside the house, still with a beer in his hand, Teek said to Visser: “This is the end of my career.Now I have to go and do something else.One also doesn’t know who is lying and who is telling the truth.That’s the problem, you don’t know anything.”He still made an attempt to make light of the situation, however, as he offered Visser a soft drink.”This is no bribe,” he added, laughing.Two days after that search, Visser arrested Teek as he lay in a hospital bed in Windhoek.He had been admitted to hospital because of his emotional state.”Weak, very weak.Gastric nerves, can’t eat anything,” Teek explained his condition to Visser, shows a second video recording, which was made of the arrest.A little over a week after that arrest, Teek was suspended from his post as Supreme Court Judge.On October 14 last year, Teek’s retirement from the judiciary was announced.”Although he denies all charges, he has accepted that, even if acquitted in the criminal trial and in the Judicial Service Commission investigation, it would not be possible for him to be able to return to the Bench and properly perform his functions in view of public perceptions after recent events,” the Office of the President stated in a press release in which his retirement was announced.As it turned out, the search of the house yielded nothing incriminating against Teek, the court also heard yesterday.The trial continues today.
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