After finding love at sea while both worked on a cruise ship, a marriage of several years and a daughter, this once happy tale has turned into a horror for the husband.
He had to spend 17 days in a police cell and a year of standing trial - all after the wife falsely accused him of breaking into her home and raping her.
Although the husband had a clear alibi that he and his then new girlfriend were at a casino at the time of the alleged attack - and despite the fact that they were clearly captured on CCTV camera at the time - both the wife, the SAPS and the prosecution simply turned a blind eye.
Not only did this tale shock the community where they lived, it ruined the husband’s life. Apart from his daughter totally turning against him, his reputation was in tatters which affected his ability to work. Things were so bad that the husband was said to suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The now divorced wife continued with her tale of lies. After the husband instituted a damages claim of more than R14-million against her for, among others, defamation, she even instituted a counter claim of more than R11-million against him for “the attack on her.” She later withdrew her counterclaim.
It now emerged, years later, that it was all a pack of lies.
Judge Patrick Gamble, sitting in the Western Cape High Court, this week awarded R665 000 in damages to the husband - payable by his wife.
While she over the years vigorously maintained her lies, she refused to participate in this defamation action against her. She simply said she was no longer up to it and that she was out of pocket.
The court asked the husband in the witness box what he hoped to achieve by persisting in this litigation in circumstances where there is the possibility that he will not recover his damages from the former wife who claims penury.
He responded that it was important for him to clear his name. He said he remains passionate about returning to the high seas and the world of ocean liners where he wishes to work again as a chief steward. But, he said, he has to clear his name because he will not be considered for such employment with such an allegation hanging over his head.
Judge Gamble, in his judgment said: “In my view there is very little to say by way of mitigation of the harm occasioned to the plaintiff by the defendant. In a society which is wracked by extraordinarily high levels of gender-based violence, the defendant chose to accuse the plaintiff of the most unspeakable of crimes – rape in the domestic setting. A crime for which sentences ranging between 10 years and life imprisonment are prescribed.”
Judge Gamble added that these are allegations, which once made, are difficult to erase from the public perception when the perpetrator is acquitted.
“The award of damages in such a situation will invariably be high, especially where the defamation is aggravated by persistence, malice and intense hatred, as is the case here.”
The husband is an Italian citizen and like his father, he started working as a waiter on cruise liners while still a teenager. Until 2004 he was employed as a head waiter by Princess Cruises Lines Ltd, a Bermuda registered company.
He met his now ex-wife when she came to work as a waitress on the ship where he was the head waiter. Their relationship started in 2001 and in 2004 they decided to get married and settle in South Africa. They bought two adjoining farms in the Ceres district and went to live on one of them.
The wife left him in 2009 to stay with their neighbours and took their child who was six at the time, with. When the husband went to the farm to see the child, there was strife and the police were called. He was arrested and he spent the night in jail.
This was the start of the ongoing divorce battle between the couple and several cases brought against each other - resulting in the malicious charges. In one of these cases the wife testified under oath that the plaintiff had never physically assaulted her during the time they were together.
When the divorce eventually went through, the court gave her the two farms but ordered her to pay her now former husband R2-million.
His life changed on September 18, 2012, when she accused him of breaking into her home and said that he had raped her. She even showed the police around her home to show “where it happened” and made false statements to them.
While CCTV footage showed him and his girlfriend at the casino at the time, the wife maintained the man looked like him, but was not him. The SAPS pushed forward with the arrest and his prosecution lasted for a year, before the case was dropped.
The wife called witnesses during his trial, but refused herself to testify. Judge Gamble commented that the reason for this is self-evident. A welfare officer meanwhile reported that the wife had told him she would do everything within her power to ensure that the husband never had any contact with their child. He concluded that she harboured intense hatred towards the husband and would do everything within her power to alienate the child from him.
The wife meanwhile maintained that the husband was her attacker, but alleged in the alternative that if it proved not to have been him, she honestly believed that it was him.
When he sued her for damages, the wife disappeared and had to be located via a tracing agent. A judge earlier found her liable for the damages, although she once again refused to participate in the proceedings.
Following this ruling and in a bizarre email sent to the judge by the child, in which she claimed “that they had undergone gender reassignment surgery” (without further explanation) the child pictured the dad as a “monster.” It was concluded that the mother was behind the email in a bid to paint the dad black.
Judge Gamble took over to decide the amount of damages which should be awarded.
The father and the SAPS earlier reached an agreement as to an amount of damages the latter had to pay him for their part in his ordeal (the amount is undisclosed).
Pretoria News