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Matron at Winfrey school pleads innocent
2008-07-29
SEBOKENG, South Africa - A former dormitory matron at Oprah Winfrey's school for poor South African girls pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges that she indecently assaulted and otherwise abused six teenagers and a fellow matron at the academy. Tiny Virginia Makopo, 28, looked nervous and sullen at the start of her trial, and she and her lawyer gave no indication what her defense would be. Judge Thelma Simpson granted a prosecution request for the rest of the proceedings, expected to last all week, to be closed to the public. She also is allowing the teenagers to testify through close-circuit TV to save them the trauma of confronting their alleged attacker in court. Prosecutor Etienne Venter described the girls as "very scared and very, very emotional." Winfrey has been deeply embarrassed by the scandal, especially since she had told the girls she was the "momma bear" who would protect them. The talk-show host has spoken in the past of being raped by a distant cousin at age 9 and then abused by three other men, trusted family friends. She has campaigned for laws in the United States to protect children from abusers. Police said the alleged abuse took place over four months at her Leadership Academy for Girls and victimized six students ages 13 to 15 and a 23-year-old dormitory matron. The father of the first child to complain of abuse withdrew her from the school after her complaints were ignored. Winfrey said school officials tried to hide the facts from her. She said she would not be renewing the contract of the suspended headmistress, who denies she knew about the abuse, and indicated other staff also would be dismissed. On Tuesday, a court official read each of the 14 charges to Makopo, who said after each one, "I plead not guilty." She looked down and spoke through an interpreter who translated from her Sotho language into English. If found guilty of indecent acts, she faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in jail. The charges include trying to kiss a 13-year-old with an open mouth, trying to fondle her breasts and getting the child to fondle her breasts. Makopo is accused of getting into the bed of a 14-year-old at night, kissing her and pulling her body closer. She is accused of touching intimate body parts of the girls, but always through clothing. Makopo allegedly asked at least two of the girls to become lesbians, and one to kiss her as she would a boyfriend. And she allegedly accused one 13-year-old of being a prostitute. One incident describes her throwing a 14-year-old onto a couch and forcing her to eat custard which she also rubbed into the girl's hair. The most extreme of the assault accusations has her pushing a 13-year-old against a wall and pressing her thumbs against the girl's windpipe. Makopo is charged with assaulting her fellow 23-year-old fellow dormitory matron, Promise Ngwedi, by pushing and shoving her at the academy. Winfrey's US$40 million school was the fulfillment of a promise she made to former President Nelson Mandela and aims to give girls from deprived backgrounds a quality education and groom them for leadership positions in a country where schools are struggling to overcome the legacy of white-minority rule. South Africa has one of the highest rates of child abuse and rape in the world, with children from poor black families most likely to be victims. Analysts blame a society that glorifies male dominance, a history of violence perpetrated under white rule and mounting anger and frustration that independence has not lifted the majority out of poverty.
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