Beware the Magic Man

About 5 years ago, we attended the Hermanus Whale festival with a group of kids ranging from about 8 to about 15 years of age. We travelled there in a VW Combi and much to the disgust of the older kids, someone had brought along a Rolf Harris CD and we and had a blast singing "The Court of King Caractacus" on the top of our lungs all the way there. (I noted that even the older kids sang along.)

During the day, one of the kids started to play up and wanted to go home and within the space of an hour he had turned from this happy go lucky 13 year old into an otherwise little person who seemed hell bent on ruining everyone's day.

He became sullen and quiet and all he wanted was to go home. We couldn't understand this transformation and he and I spent most of the day in the Wimpy, away from the other kids so as not to ruin their day. Everyone was quite subdued on the way home and we were not sure if it was because of the boy's demeanour of whether it was because they were all totally exhausted.
It wasn't until 3 years later that I found out what had caused the transformation of that little boy that day. This is his story as he told it to me.

"A friend of mine knew this cool guy who was a magician and he asked me if I wanted to meet him. I was very excited and of course I said yes! Which 11 year old doesn't want to meet a real live magician? So my friend brought him to my house. He was very interesting and he and my mom hit it off right away and later became good friends. He lived quite close by and while my mom was a single mother, who struggled to make ends meet, "*magic man" lived in Marina da Gama (Cape Town) in a fantastic house and had lots of gadgets and toys and I loved going there.
He was lots of fun and a very nice guy and he soon gained the trust of my mother. He began teaching me and my friends magic tricks and he let me work with him as an apprentice and even paid me. After about 2 months, he started touching me (sexually).

<> this story is not about what sexual predators do so I will skip to the next part of the story.

Then a few months later "magic man" introduced us to a friend of his called Jay. Jay and my mother also became good friends. He was married but he kept asking me if he could photograph me without my clothes on. He freaked me out and I found him really gross, so I avoided him every time he came to our house or "magic man's house. I think they used to "work" together.

The "fiddling" went on for 6 months before I worked up the courage to tell my mom. She phoned the police and laid a complaint. They asked me a few questions then went away. I never went to court and I don't know what happened but when I asked my mom if anything had transpired, she told me that she heard that they (the police) had taken his ID and passport away.

* I have not used the magician's real name because he was never convicted and other the the the boy's story and the that of one of his friends who found himself in the same position but did not have the courage to tell, there is no proof of these terrible incidents. The young man who told me this story is 19 years old now and just wants to forget about "magic man" and his twisted friend Jay.

In my opinion, the very worst criminals are those that hurt little children and top of my list are adults that sexually prey on kids. Beware of this magician, he is still out there and could magically take away the innocence of your little boy.