In 2022, 19-year-old Julio Mordoh opened up about being sexually molested by a teacher at St John’s Preparatory School in Johannesburg. Three weeks after giving his statement to the police, he took his own life.
Mordoh was one of more than 15 boys who were allegedly sexually groomed and violated by a teacher at the school between 2007 and 2013. Most of the boys were aged 10 to 12 years.
“My boy couldn’t withstand the trauma. He took his life three weeks after he gave a statement to the police, and his gift to the other survivors is that he’s been the face so that the other survivors don’t have to face any more trauma,” Julio’s mother, Teresa Mordoh, told the Mail & Guardian this week.
“They are youngsters, they want to get on with their lives, and it has already taken four years to get to this point. We’re going to start losing people who are coming forward because it’s just taking too long. That is also not okay.”
The 52-year-old former teacher — who was employed at the school from 2002 to 2014 — made his first appearance at the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg this week on 25 counts of indecent assault and sexual assault. The case was postponed to 20 November for pre-trial, and Judge Rean Strydom extended the accused’s bail.
A past student registered the first case against the former teacher in 2021 for sexual grooming and indecent assault in Johannesburg, but the case was later withdrawn and moved to Marikana, where more alleged victims from different provinces came forward. The matter was eventually centralised in Johannesburg after more students, including some from other schools, reported incidents.
In February 2025, the former teacher was arrested on fresh charges of indecent assault dating back to 2005–2006.
All cases are now consolidated into 25 counts and will be heard at the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, investigating officer Heila Niemand told the M&G.
“It took us four years to get to today. To actually have the matter heard in high court without going piecemeal and to bring it all together and have the gravitas that it needs to have to drive change,” Mordoh said.
“I was hoping that there would at least be a reconsideration of the bail today [Wednesday].”
Representatives from the Teddy Bear Clinic, Women and Men Against Child Abuse, and STOPS gathered at the court on Wednesday to support the survivors’ families and raise awareness about the widespread problem of child and sexual abuse in South Africa.
Mordoh said the case was not only about justice for the victims but also about upholding the Child Protection Act and ensuring that children have safe spaces where they feel empowered to speak out.
Reflecting on her late son’s experience, she said he had initially been too afraid to come forward because he believed something was wrong with him for being targeted by the teacher — until he learned that other boys had suffered the same abuse.
She said the accused appeared to have deliberately singled out and isolated the children he targeted. She added that she continues to hear from former pupils who were molested by him and now feel ready to speak, but she believes there are still others who remain silent out of fear or shame.
The school initiated action against the man after the first charges were laid in 2021, and as more former students shared their experiences of being fondled by the teacher, who also exposed himself to them on school premises or during camp trips.
Many also reported repeat assaults by the accused, who was employed as a teacher and water-polo coach at the school. He taught Maths, Science, and Sex Education, and was also the head of Pastoral Care and of Darragh House, while coaching water polo and rock climbing. He also managed the explorer club, where learners were taken on camping and rock-climbing trips. The accused stayed on the school’s premises.
Other students also told lawyers that the accused touched them inappropriately when they sought medical care from him or forced them to swim naked with him during school trips. In some cases, he would sit next to the boys on the bus or sleep next to them on camping trips and touch them inappropriately.
A private investigator, acting on behalf of these former students, laid criminal charges against the individual concerned with the South African Police Service Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit on 15 November 2021. The school also reported the former teacher to the South African Council of Educators and the Anglican Safe Church Unit through the office of the Bishop of Johannesburg.
The school told the M&G it could not comment on the matter at this stage.
“As this matter is the subject of ongoing legal proceedings, the school is constrained from commenting further on the case,” it said.
After the case was sent to the council for review, presiding judge Johan Froneman was appointed to review the management of incidents of concern, analyse complaints against the former teacher, report on the conduct and involvement of staff and systems.
The judge absolved the school of any responsibility for the events that took place on its premises, saying that other teachers and the headmaster could not have known what was happening, nor did they try to cover it up when they found out about it years later.
“Judge Froneman noted that the school had had no knowledge of these incidents of alleged sexual abuse prior to the allegations emerging in late 2021,” a 2022 summary document seen by the M&G stated.
“The review records that no complaint against this former Prep teacher was ever made by any boys at the Prep during this period, nor by any parents. Two complaints were taken by Prep staff to their head during the former teacher’s tenure at the Prep, and these were appropriately dealt with by the Prep head at the time.”
“When the council first became aware of the allegations in October 2021, some 10 to 15 years later, it commendably took immediate steps to investigate the allegations and reported the matters to the police and prosecuting authorities,” Froneman said in the documents.
“I could not find or discern any kind of cover-up on the part of the staff or the then headmasters about the events. Tellingly, it was [the former Prep Headmaster] himself who, upon being approached by a parent in October 2021 about what she had been told by her son, immediately contacted the school about it,” he added.
The school has since undertaken training of staff members to recognise any potential warning signs of grooming or sexual and other abuse of students within the whole school community and has outlined policies, including for recruitment, to ensure such incidents do not reoccur. In a similar case, a former assistant water polo coach at Parktown Boys’ High School in Johannesburg was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2018 for sexual assault and an additional three years for common assault. Collan Rex initially faced 327 charges but pleaded guilty to 144 counts of sexual assault and 12 counts of common assault. The court acquitted him of some of the charges.
Bereaved mother recalled her son’s 2022 suicide as a 52-year-old former teacher at the school appeared in court this week on 25 counts of indecent assault and sexual assault of young boys