Criminal: Daughter turns to ConCourt over claim dad raped her

A 21-year-old woman who claims to have been manipulated by social workers and other professionals as a child to accuse her father of rape, has approached the Constitutional Court in a final attempt to secure his release. Rapport reports that Megan Raaths has been professing the innocence of her father, Abrie, since 2012. The latter has already served six years of his four life sentences. In her Constitutional Court bid, Megan says she was manipulated as an eight-year-old to testify against her father and renounced her testimony even before sentencing. She is also asking the Constitutional Court to change parts of the Children’s Act dealing with investigations into children in need of care and protection so that those investigations are recorded. The charges against Abrie Raath were laid after a drawing of two people apparently having sex were found in the schoolgirl’s backpack. Megan says the drawing was made by a classmate and not her. Megan’s mother in 2009 took her to a social worker at the time who referred her to other professionals. Abrie Raath and his daughter now say they acted unethically, outside of their scope of expertise, and reached conclusions before a criminal charge was even laid. Megan claims that she was ‘coached’ for her testimony and had to learn questions and answers by heart. The social worker agency involved, CMR Noord, said in response to the application that they are satisfied that their social workers followed the correct protocols.