ELS DENIES ABUSING KLAY

Afrikaans singer Jurie Els took the stand in court this week to deny all charges of having sexually abused younger fellow singer Robbie Klay.

Els denied all charges that he had molested the now 23 year old Klay when the latter was between the ages of 11 and 16.

He said that Klay had vowed revenge against him after the two had a fallout in 2005 over a car that he and his wife had help Klay to finance.

He also claimed that at the age of 14 Klay had threatened to fabricate charges of sexual molestation against him when they had an argument.

“I was shocked… I was very upset… I confronted him with the seriousness of what he had said, but he said it was just a stupid joke. I explained to him that such a joke could land me in jail,” he told the court, reports SAPA.

Els painted Klay as a troubled, spoilt and deceitful young man and said that he had suspected that he had been molested when he was younger due to his bed-wetting problem and unusual interest in things sexual when he was a child.

Klay admitted in court that he had been paid R 10,000 by a magazine to name Els as the person who had allegedly molested him.

Els, who now lives in New Zealand with his wife and child, has voluntarily returned to South Africa to defend himself.

The trial continues in the North Gauteng High Court.