Two years before he was arrested in an FBI-tipped raid, the Malmesbury teenager accused of ordering American children to sexually abuse themselves and mutilate animals was sitting in a classroom he did not want to be in, falling apart.
His marks had collapsed. A psychometrist who assessed him recommended he be excused from writing his third-term exams altogether.
That report — compiled in 2024 and seen by this publication — now forms part of the state's papers in one of the most disturbing cases to come before a Western Cape court this year. It was submitted alongside a request that the 16-year-old be examined by a district surgeon.
He is due back in the Malmesbury Magistrate's Court on Thursday.
Marks That Halved In A Single Term
The numbers in the report tell their own story. In one term, his performance in nearly every key subject collapsed.
| Subject | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | 75% | 49% |
| English | 86% | 43% |
| Maths | 66% | 23% |
| Natural science | 74% | 20% |
| Digital technology | 76% | 16% |
The psychometrist recommended he be tested for autism, that he repeat Grade 8, and that he be taught in English rather than Afrikaans, his home language.
"He currently feels overwhelmed with the curriculum and is reluctant to attend school," she wrote.
She recorded what he told her about the classroom itself.
"He reported a fear of failing the year and what the other learners will think then.
"His attention wanders off during class especially when the teachers talk in Afrikaans."
He said he followed English more easily than Afrikaans, and that he battled to take in about 80% of the content in a subject such as biology. Asked about his memory, he answered in Afrikaans that he could not remember things well.
"He describes his academic performance referring back to grade 4, when he last felt confident about his abilities," the report read.
"It sounds like the transition from home schooling to mainstream is a challenge."
A Broken Schooling History
He attended a primary school from Grade R to Grade 4, then spent three years being homeschooled on a US-based syllabus. He returned to the classroom for Grade 7, but lasted only two terms at a local high school before stopping and being homeschooled again.
By the end of 2024, he was out of the school system entirely, being taught at home on an American curriculum.
A psychiatrist assessed him at the end of August 2024. Ritalin had been tried for three weeks earlier that year but was stopped after it worsened his anxiety and made his hands shake. He had been in and out of psychotherapy for four or five years, and his psychologist had recorded a history of bullying during his primary school years.
The report also noted how he was filling his days instead.
"He currently likes learning Russian as a third language and enjoys online gaming," it read, adding that there was a theme of learners "making him feel self-aware and uncomfortable at school."
Testing placed his verbal reasoning in the borderline range, his non-verbal reasoning in the average range and his overall score in the low-average range. His reading speed in Afrikaans was about four years behind, his spelling about four years behind, and his handwriting speed 40% slower than expected for a boy his age. His weakest single score was on a memory test, which the psychometrist read as forgetfulness and distractibility.
She stopped short of diagnosing a learning disorder, finding he did not meet the full criteria because his schooling had been broken up and he had moved between languages and systems.
Instead, she pressed for one more round of testing by a specialist in neurodevelopmental disorders "to explore the possibility of comorbidities such as autism spectrum disorder".
Her listed reasons included a "Significant discrepancy between verbal (borderline) and non-verbal abilities" and "Possible sensory overload in school environment", along with low scores on abstract reasoning and short-term memory, his reluctance to attend school, and the anxiety his medication had caused.
She recommended he repeat Grade 8 in 2025, move to English, stay in psychotherapy and be supported at home.
"In the light of his ADHD and anxiety diagnosis, additional time is advised," the report said of his exams.
"With his significant delay in handwriting speed, he might benefit from typing on a computer."
The alleged offences began 17 months later, in January this year.
The Arrest
He was arrested on Monday at an upmarket golf and country estate — a secure development built around an 18-hole golf course, with a clubhouse, private homes and controlled access at a boom gate. He appeared in court for the first time the following day. His identity is known but may not be published, as he is a minor.
The operation was led by the police's national serial and electronic crime investigations team, supported by the head office occult unit, the Paarl family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit, the Paarl K9 unit and the Western Cape crime scene investigation unit. Agents from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the US embassy also attended.
National police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Amanda van Wyk said the operation followed intelligence from the FBI, the US embassy and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
"The intelligence indicated that a target, suspected of being linked to violent online networks commonly referred to as '764', was believed to be located in South Africa," Van Wyk said.
It is understood he worked from a corner of his bedroom, at a desk holding two screens, a mechanical keyboard, a gaming headset and a studio-style microphone on a stand, with a cellphone propped up beside them, a gaming chair pulled in and LED strips glowing pink along the wall and red under the desk.
The Charges
The teenager faces 11 charges linked to 764 — seven sexual offences, two counts under the cybercrimes law and two of animal cruelty.
764 is an online network the FBI has described as a violent extremist network associated with child exploitation. It is known for targeting children online and coercing them into sending explicit pictures of themselves, which are then used to blackmail them into performing and filming sexual acts, acts of self-harm and acts of harming animals.
Eleven American children aged between 11 and 17 have laid complaints against him.
Silence At The Gate
A visit to the estate on Wednesday, two days after the arrest, produced nothing. A security guard phoned the boy's parents from the gate and returned with a message that they did not want to speak. He said the couple had left shortly before.
Nobody else at the estate would talk about it. One resident said only that the arrest had been "extremely dramatic".
The state has indicated it needs to go further than the 2024 report before it can determine whether he is fit to stand trial.
The matter returns to court on Thursday.
