{"id":25080,"date":"2016-05-04T01:55:25","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T01:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/ex-wimbledon-champion-bob-hewitt-appeals-against\/"},"modified":"2016-05-04T01:55:08","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T01:55:08","slug":"ex-wimbledon-champion-bob-hewitt-appeals-against","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/ex-wimbledon-champion-bob-hewitt-appeals-against\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Wimbledon champion Bob Hewitt appeals against rape sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Former Wimbledon tennis champion Bob Hewitt has appealed in a South African court against his six-year prison sentence for raping under-age girls.}<\/p>\n

The sentence “over-emphasised” the crimes, and Hewitt’s age and health should be considered, his lawyer said.<\/p>\n

The prosecution said it was opposed to the sentence being reduced.<\/p>\n

The 76-year-old, who is out on bail, was convicted last year of raping and sexually assaulting girls he coached in South Africa the 1980s and 1990s.<\/p>\n

The trial judge gave him permission to challenge his sentence, but not conviction, in the Supreme Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Australian-born Hewitt was expelled from the International Tennis Hall of Fame because of his conviction.<\/p>\n

“The crux of the matter is that age is supposed to be taken into account,” his lawyer Johann Engelbrecht told a panel of three judges who are hearing the appeal.<\/p>\n

“Our submission is that the sentence over-emphasises the crime and the retribution,” he added.<\/p>\n

{{‘No remorse’}}<\/p>\n

Mr Engelbrecht also argued that Hewitt had not committed one of the “worst offences”, and was not a danger to society, South Africa’s privately owned Times Live news site reports.<\/p>\n

The judges questioned the lawyer’s views, with one remarking that the trial judge could have sentenced Hewitt to life in prison for raping a minor, it reports.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Carina Coetzee said Hewitt did not deserve a lower sentence because he had failed to show remorse, and had breached the trust of children.<\/p>\n

Hewitt was found guilty in March last year of raping two girls and of sexually assaulting a third.<\/p>\n

The trial judge said at the time that the striking similarities between the three victims’ testimonies showed that his conduct was calculated.<\/p>\n

The appeal court reserved judgement. It has the power to maintain the six-year sentence, reduce it, or increase it.<\/p>\n

Hewitt played initially for Australia, later moving to South Africa and taking citizenship there.<\/p>\n

He was a member of the South African team which won the Davis Cup by default in 1974.<\/p>\n

India, their opponents, refused to travel to South Africa for the final as a protest over the government’s apartheid policies.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Former Wimbledon tennis champion Bob Hewitt has appealed in a South African court against his six-year prison sentence for raping under-age girls.} The sentence “over-emphasised” the crimes, and Hewitt’s age and health should be considered, his lawyer said. The prosecution said it was opposed to the sentence being reduced. The 76-year-old, who is out on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-justice","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25080"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25080"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}