COP GUILTY OF ATTACKING OUMA

A FORMER Athlone cop was let “off the hook” by paying a R6 000 fine for assaulting an ouma.

Sergeant Giovanni Gabriels made headlines back in 2018 when Veronica Franciscus informed the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) that the officer had attacked her and her son Kyle.

The retired Kewtown nurse explained that SAPS officers arrived at her home and asked Kyle to open a garage door. As her son’s pit bull ran out, they closed the door fearing the dog would mistake the cops for intruders.

But Gabriels allegedly became angry and threw her to the ground and pepper-sprayed her.

The Athlone Magistrates Court found him guilty of common assault last Friday.

During court proceedings, Gabriels had told the magistrate that he moved to Lambert’s Bay.

However, advocate Leon Fieties, representing Franciscus, told the Daily Voice that the same court found him guilty of a similar charge last year, to which he paid a R5 000 fine after judgment was handed down in that matter.

Fieties says: “The sore point is that he was transferred from Athlone police station to Lambert's Bay police station where he is still conducting policing services within the community.

“So they are transferring the problem, but he is a brutal person and there is a trend of him assaulting people. The law should be applied equally to all citizens, but unfortunately it looks like police officers who are accused of assault are facing preferential treatment. ”

Gabriels was fined to either pay R6 000 or serve a six-month prison sentence.

Franciscus told the Daily Voice that she cannot judge him and is at peace with him; however, she felt that had he been a citizen, the judgment would have been harsher.

She says: “I can’t judge him and I have peace with him and thank God that I can now sleep. Whatever the judgment was, I am happy that things got so far.

"But I do feel sorry for him as a person, it is on him.”

Fieties added that he intends to ensure that his client is able to claim damages, as the matter was dragged out.