The book ‘’The Lost Boys of Bird Island’’ (Die Seuns van Bird Island) is based mainly on certain so-called ‘’sources’’ from both Minnie and Steyn, and certain so-called ‘’witnesses’’ and ‘’victims’’ that were referred to by Mark Minnie in the book.
[The Private Investigator Wouter de Swardt of Fox Forensics Private Investigators traced all of the witnesses named by Minnie and obtained sworn statements from each of them, proving the lies]
Steyn never mentioned one witness or source or so-called ‘’victim’’ in the book. Everything written by Steyn in the chapters she wrote is based purely on allegations or ‘’I heard from a source’’, and inuendoes. She has to date not produced one single witness or victim.
In fact – in the 35 years – including the past two years of police investigation – not a single witness or victim has come forward. The reason for that is simply that there never could have been any witnesses or victims because the alleged crimes “committed” by the mentioned ministers never happened.
[ Compare this to the recent and on-going charges and investigation against a former Media24 Senior Executive Willem Breytenbach who was exposed by one of his victims and within two weeks 16 victims came forward to testify that Breytenbach allegedly had raped or sexually molested them as young boys or young men ]
It has been forensically proven that every single so-called ‘’truth’’ in the book was a blatant lie and fabrication of Mark Minnie’s twisted mind.
Mark Minnie based his so-called ‘’exposure’’ in the book on ‘’information’’ he allegedly had been given by Dave Allen when he arrested him in 1987. Dave Allen committed suicide before he could appear in court but “conveniently” for Minnie’s fabricated story more than twenty years later, Allen first “mentioned” to Minnie the names of ministers who allegedly then were part of a paedophile ring.
Dave Allen was a multimillionaire business man and very well-known pubic figure in the Port Elizabeth area. Mark Minnie arrested him in February 1987 for the possession of pornography which included homosexual pornography. He did not arrest him for paedophilia.
Dave Allen was a homosexual man who felt attracted to young men between the ages of 15 and 18. He kept them as ‘’Toy Boys’’ and had consensual sex with them. He was not a paedophile. The character in the book called William Hart was one of his ‘’Toy Boys”. William Hart aka Thomas (Tommy) Case testified to this under oath.
The following sequences of events were related to the Investigator Wouter de Swardt in person by Chris Steyn at a dinner meeting in Port Elizabeth during the first few days of his investigations into the death of Mark Minnie. His personal comments and information sourced elsewhere, are indicated in bold italics.
• In 1997 – TEN YEARS AFTER THE ARREST AND DEATH OF DAVE ALLEN - Mark Minnie tried to sell his so-called ‘’docket’’ to a reporter (who is known to Jacques Pauw) for R20,000.00. It was declined. That is when Chris Steyn, while working as reporter at ‘’Cape Times’’ newspaper, picked up on the story. She was dispatched to interview Minnie but Minnie told her – in her own words – ‘’f- off this is MY story’’. She returned to Cape Town but her editor refused to publish her report and story BECAUSE THERE WERE NO WITNESSES OR VICTIMS.
• Then - in late 2015 – TEN YEARS AFTER THE ALLEGED CRIMES HAPPENED AND 20 YEARS AFTER HE FIRST MADE THE ALLEGATIONS PUBLIC – Mark Minnie presented his so-called autobiography manuscript called ‘’ Max: Fact or Fiction, you decide’’ to Tafelberg Publishers for possible publication. It landed on the desk of the publisher Maryna Lamprecht. She was not interested in publishing the book because of the vile content and thin story line but did pick up on the allegations therein about paedophilia against Ministers of the previous government.
• This clearly begs the question: why did neither Mark Minnie nor Chris Steyn not come forward and expose this and testify to The Truth and Reconciliation Commission during the April 1996 to June 1998 hearings?
• During 2017 Maryna Lamprecht received a manuscript from Chris Steyn for consideration for publication. In this manuscript Steyn also referred to the alleged paedophilia committed by previous government ministers and she – Maryna Lamprecht – then came up with the idea of combining the manuscripts from Minnie and Steyn into one book but with ‘’altered ‘’ story lines and characters.
• At this stage Mark Minnie was still in China – teaching English in a position he obtained with falsified qualification documents. Maryna Lamprecht contacted Minnie and introduced him to Chris Steyn. Minnie flew to back here to South Africa and met with Steyn in Hermanus in December 2017.
• From that time on the ‘’story’’ was constantly altered and enhanced, aimed at maximising its political and sensational impact and to make it a ‘’best seller’’, earning money and fame for the writers and publisher.
The chronological shaping of the altered story is well documented in e-mails between Lamprecht, Steyn, Minnie and Marianne Thamm, seen, scrutinised and analysed by the investigator Wouter de Swardt of Fox Forensics and the well-known investigative author and reporter Jacques Pauw of ‘’ Vrye Weekblad’’.
The contents of these e-mail were first revealed in a hard-hitting and powerful article Jacques Pauw published in “Vrye Weekblad” on 5 April 2019.
The end result was that the English book ‘’The Lost Boys of Bird Island’’ and the Afrikaans version ‘’Die Seuns van Bird Island’’ were fraudulently launched as Non-Fiction on 5 August 2018.
This notwithstanding the forensically proven fact that four days before the actual launch of the book Mark Minnie confessed in an email to both Lamprecht and Steyn that HE HAD NO PROOF THAT ANY OF THE THREE MINISTERS MOLESTED YOUNG BOYS.
The book was launched and extensively advertised on all Media24 platforms and other independent platforms as a ‘’Shocking exposé’’ and as non-fiction. In doing so the Directors of media24 and Esmarè Weideman (the CEO of Media24 Books) and Eloise Wessels (the CEO of NB Publishers and Tafelberg Publishers) as well as Maryna Lamprecht (the Editor Non-Fiction of Tafelberg Publishers) committed fraud.
Also read THE OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK
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