Lawyer Denies Rape of Minor Citing Consensual WhatsApp Messages

A defense lawyer standing trial for rape has argued in court that WhatsApp messages exchanged with a minor girl prove the encounter was consensual, according to reports by News24. Schoenix Schoeman is on trial facing charges of raping a minor at a resort, a charge he has contested by maintaining that the interaction was consensual after discovering the girl’s actual age, as detailed by News24.

The trial centers on events that allegedly occurred at a resort facility. According to the reporting by News24, Schoeman’s legal defense relies heavily on digital communications extracted from the messaging platform. The defense team presented these text records to assert that the nature of the engagement was understood by both parties as consensual.

Court proceedings have focused on the timeline of when Schoeman learned the minor girl’s real age. According to News24, the defense claims that upon discovering her actual age, the circumstances surrounding the interaction shift, a point that forms the core of the ongoing legal arguments presented in the courtroom.

Legal arguments and evidence submissions are scheduled to continue as the court evaluates the admissibility and weight of the WhatsApp logs.