Fiona Viotti’s attorney William Booth has rubbished claims that his client, has skipped the country amid allegations of sexual abuse of a number of pupils at the private school in Rondebosch. Viotti is a 30 year old former history teacher at Bishops Diocesan College.
Fiona Viotti resigned at Bishops Diocesan College when allegations of a sexual relationship with an 18 year old matric pupil surfaced this past week.
He allegedly wanted to end it, she refused and he called for help from his parents, who informed headmaster Guy Pearson.
Pearson confirmed in a letter to parents that an investigation of serious misconduct was under way and that Fiona Viotti had resigned on Thursday last week.
The matter has since escalated, with the school appointing an attorney to probe allegations that Viotti, who is married, had sexually abused more boys at the school. Pearson issued a statement to the parents via email on Saturday to the parents confirming that the school was conducting a probe.
Booth, the prominent criminal attorney representing Viotti claimed the matter is being investigated by the school and he asked for the names of all including her family to not be published for reasons of privacy and respect of dignity.
There were also reports alleging that Viotti had sent nude pictures of herself to pupils and videos of her masturbating on a bed.
Booth said if there were videos, then another aspect was how you came to be in possession of the video or anybody got in possession of the video.
Booth did not say when he was expected to meet Viotti again. Fiona Viotti is the niece of former Bok rugby coach Nick Mallett.
The incident comes few days after the South African Council for Educators (Sace) presented its annual 2018/19 report to Parliament’s portfolio committee on basic education where it noted that sexual abuse by teachers had climbed by more than 230% over the past five years.
Sace spokesperson Themba Ndhlovu acknowledged that the number of reported cases of improper relationships between teachers and pupils was growing at an alarming rate, and needed to be addressed by all the provincial education departments as a matter of urgency.
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