Screengrab of an employer abusing an employee.
THE Legal Practises Council has confirmed receiving a formal complaint from the African Radical Transformation Alliance (Areta) against liquidation lawyer Vaughn Victor.
This comes after the top lawyer was identified as the culprit behind the torture of an elderly Free State woman in a 2020 video that recently went viral on social media.
Leader of the Areta Carl Niehaus confirmed to The Star that he laid a formal complaint against Victor after he was identified as the culprit in the viral video clip.
Niehaus said the party filed an “official urgent complaint with the Legal Practice Council”, against Victor for his vicious racist torturing of Antjie Bochedi, the woman in the viral video.
Niehaus said Victor should not be allowed to continue practising as an attorney after having tortured an elderly woman.
Areta’s formal complaint with the council comes after the SAPS in the Free State confirmed that they located Bochedi, who was racially abused and threatened with the severing of her fingers in a viral video captured about two years ago.
The two-year-old video first surfaced on social media after journalist Izak du Plessis confronted Victor over his abusive treatment of the domestic worker, known only as Anna or Annetjie, whom he suspected of being involved in abetting a farm murder.
“It is our understanding that Victor engaged in these acts in his personal capacity and in his capacity as a lawyer who purported to be investigating a murder committed on the farm.
“The video was filmed while Victor was questioning Bochedi about the murder of 56-year-old Pieter Hills and his 26-year-old son Eddie on November 20, 2020.
“Victor was acting as a family spokesperson following the murders on the farm.
“The video was filmed by behavioural specialist Wendy Nickheld, who joined Victor in the interview to help determine if any of the farm staff were lying,” Niehaus says in his statement to the legal council.
Last week, Free State police reported that they had successfully located the elderly woman who was captured on video, which created shock waves on social media. The video shows an elderly woman being racially abused and assaulted by a white male who had threatened to cut her fingers.
This week, The Star reported that the perpetrator was a lawyer by profession following attempts by the police to locate the woman.
In a media statement, Victor is quoted as saying: “The publication of the said video is part of a campaign by Louis Liebenberg against me and my involvement in the insolvent estate of Tariomix, which includes spurious and malicious charges laid against me, inter alia, with the SAPS, and as such, it is inappropriate for me to deal with it further.
“I would welcome a proper investigation into the matter and will be of full assistance to any law enforcement agency that may wish to do so.”
Police spokesperson Captain Loraine Earl said that, according to their investigations, the video was captured in November 2020, but they did not find the victim until last Thursday.
In the said clip, the elderly woman can be seen crying while being racially abused.
At one point, she is seen being covered with what appears to be a jersey by her attacker as she shrieks in fear.
The Star
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