Former Tennis Champion Bob Hewitt Jailed For Rape In South Africa; Thought ‘Rape Is Always Enjoyable’

Australian-origin former Grand Slam tennis star Bob Hewitt, 75, has been sentenced to six years in jail term in South Africa for raping and assaulting young girls he trained in the 1980s and 1990s. A Johannesburg court found the former champion guilty of twin counts of rape and a separate sexual assault in March. Hewitt had pleaded not guilty to all charges during trial. Judge Bert Bam informed that if Hewitt was aged 50 at the time of verdict, he would have been sentenced to 20 years in jail. The judge also criticised the player for not showing remorse during his trial.

During the case, it was found that Hewitt reportedly told one of his victims that rape is always enjoyable. Hewitt also told the court that he had suffered a stroke in 2010 and a heart attack in 2011. But he was so confident of receiving a lenient sentence that when he heard the final sentence, he was expressionless.

After the judgement, he stooped down in the dock, discussing the sentence with his lawyers, he was also flanked by his wife Delialle. "I have nothing to say," Hewitt told AFP in a low voice. Earlier, his wife also pleaded for the judge not to send her husband to jail. "I have never had to beg before but I am asking you from the bottom of my heart to please let my husband return to the farm as I could not survive without him," she said in grief.

The prosecution from the beginning of the hearing insisted that Hewitt's crimes were serious enough, making him totally eligible for a jail term, irrespective of his health conditions.

"There was a huge public outcry, not just because of his status in society ... but because child abuse being so rife in this country, this is not a new phenomenon," said state prosecutor Carina Coetzee.

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