Ex-teacher accused of abuse by TV presenter Nicky Campbell is to appear in court in South Africa

A former teacher accused of abuse by TV presenter Nicky Campbell will appear at a specialist sex crimes court in South Africa next month.

Iain Wares, 83, who is fighting extradition to the UK, is charged with two indecent assaults against a boy in Cape Town.

Yesterday, magistrates in Cape Town heard prosecutors’ investigations into allegations Wares sexually assaulted a schoolboy in the 1980s were now complete and he was committed for trial on August 18.

It means, for the first time, Wares will have to enter a plea to a charge of indecently assaulting the boy. The retired maths and rugby master allegedly molested the pupil at Rondebosch Preparatory School.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has already heard that dozens of schoolboys from Edinburgh Academy and Fettes College claimed Wares abused them.

South African judges agreed to extradition in 2020 but he launched an ongoing appeal.

Wares faces seven charges of assaulting boys in the UK dating back to the 1960s but it is believed many more will be put to him if the Justice Minister agrees to extradition when that case is heard in October.

Mr Campbell has said he witnessed a former classmate at Edinburgh Academy being abused by Wares.

Father-of-one Wares moved from South Africa to Edinburgh in 1967, and has previously admitted seeking treatment after experiencing ‘urges’ to touch young boys. 

Mr Campbell (pictured) has said he witnessed a former classmate at Edinburgh Academy being abused by Wares

He said he spent three months undergoing psychiatric evaluation and then became a teacher in Edinburgh where he allegedly began a pattern of abuse before leaving Scotland in 1979.

The Western Cape education department says it had no reports of wrongdoing during the three decades he taught after returning.

But after Wares was named in a South African TV documentary, a former pupil came forward to make sexual allegations.

Wares is facing six charges of lewd, indecent and libidinous behaviour and one of indecent assault in the UK.