The mother of two complainants in the sexual assault trial of former St John’s Preparatory School teacher Brett Nicolson told the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday that she believes the ex-educator “classically groomed” her in order to gain access to her sons.
Nicolson is currently on trial facing 25 charges, which include eight counts of sexual assault, 10 counts of sexual grooming of children, five counts of indecent assault, and two counts of exposing or displaying his genital organs to children. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Testifying under a court order that prohibits her from being named to protect the identities of the complainants, the mother of three former St John’s pupils detailed how Nicolson systematically built a relationship of trust with her family.
“My thoughts are that I was classically groomed, as were the boys,” she told the court.
Building trust through sport and divorce
According to the mother’s testimony, the family’s bond with Nicolson started when he taught mathematics and coached hockey to her eldest son, who is now 30 years old. Nicolson also introduced the boy to rock climbing, taking him on excursions that the mother occasionally joined.
“He would take my son on rock climbing excursions, and I accompanied them on a few of those,” she said.
What began as single-day outings with a larger group of boys eventually turned into weekend trips involving only Nicolson, her eldest son, and one of his close childhood friends.
“The accused built a relationship of trust with me and the boys. I saw him caring for them, and I encouraged the relationship because the boys were doing what they were passionate about (rock climbing),” the mother testified. “I believed that the accused was committed to helping them excel in the sport.”
Her trust in the teacher ran so deep that when she separated from her former husband, she turned to Nicolson—who served as the school’s head of pastoral care at the time—and asked him to help support her sons through the divorce. She also invited him to her home for dinner to thank him for his support and even took him along as her companion to a work function.
“I thought the accused was gay and felt he was a safe partner or companion to accompany me,” she explained to the court.
The May 2021 dinner table confession
The mother testified that she had no idea anything untoward had happened until a family dinner in May 2021. While the family was discussing her second son—then 24—being bullied by his girlfriend’s friends and how wrong abuse was, the young man suddenly spoke up and said: “I’ve been abused.”
Although Nicolson had never taught the second son in a classroom, their connection also centred around rock climbing. When his family asked who had abused him, the son revealed an incident in which Nicolson allegedly put his hand inside his school trousers on a bus ride home from a school event.
The following day, the mother sat down with her 24-year-old son, who disclosed two further incidents. In one instance, Nicolson allegedly instructed the boy to take off his swimming costume so that he could move faster down a water slide. In another incident at a camp, Nicolson allegedly put his hands inside the boy’s sleeping bag, where the mother assumed he had touched her son’s genitals.
While the son expressed relief at finally speaking out, he initially did not want to take further action and returned to his university studies in the Western Cape. At that point, the mother asked her 30-year-old son if anything had happened to him, and he said no.
Struggling with the revelation between May and October, the mother sought therapy.
“I was struggling with feelings of guilt that I hadn’t protected my son,” she told the court.
When her 24-year-old son returned to Johannesburg in October, he had changed his mind, telling his mother that he wanted Nicolson “to not ever teach again and to not abuse again”.
The mother then contacted a former St John’s headmaster—who had since moved to another school and later served as the State’s first witness—to report her son’s disclosures. A meeting was arranged with St John’s, prompting official investigations by both the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the South African Council of Educators (SACE).
Eldest son and childhood friend come forward
After meeting with the school, the mother updated her 30-year-old son and his wife. When his wife asked if he was certain nothing had happened to him, the older brother said he could not remember.
A few nights later, at the wife’s request, the 30-year-old’s childhood friend—who had joined him on the weekend rock climbing trips and is also a complainant in the trial—came to speak with the couple. Although the mother was not at that meeting, her son later relayed that the friend told him Nicolson had “spooned” them and had also put his hand inside the 30-year-old’s sleeping bag.
“[My son] did not recall the incident that [his friend] had told him about,” the mother testified.
However, her eldest son did recall an incident on the hockey field after being struck on the thigh by a ball, where Nicolson allegedly massaged the area in a manner that felt inappropriate.
“One of his teammates noticed the massaging and teased [my son] about it,” she said. “He said that, during rock climbing, he sometimes felt that the accused was touching him where he did not need to touch him to demonstrate climbing.”
The court was told that the 30-year-old complainant suffers from “terrible memory loss” after experiencing a massive seizure just a week before he was scheduled to testify at the SACE disciplinary hearing.
Nicolson’s defence lawyer, advocate Sita Kolbe, requested that the mother bring her son’s medical records to court on Wednesday “to confirm that he has a memory-loss issue”. The mother noted that given the short notice, she was unsure if she could secure the documents in time, but undertook to contact her son’s doctor.
The trial continues on Wednesday, when the mother will face cross-examination.