By Karen Breytenbach
Justice Writer
Millionaire businessman Mark Lifman has for a second time been acquitted of having sex with boys under the age of consent.
Dressed in a black pinstripe suit and flanked by a bodyguard, the entrepreneur formerly in fashion, nightclubs, horse racing and property development, sped away from the Atlantis Regional Court in his black Mercedes Benz with tinted windows, a free man.
Lifman pleaded not guilty to charges of indecently assaulting seven boys, the attempted murder of his alleged pimp and defeating the ends of justice after his arrest in 2005. He was released on R200 000 bail. Lifman chose not to testify in his own defence.
In an impromptu judgment delivered on Monday after one of two remaining State witnesses against Lifman was declared hostile after suddenly recanting his earlier allegations against Lifman, Magistrate Amanda Lucas found that the State had not proved its case against Lifman beyond reasonable doubt.
Lucas said without concrete evidence against him, the court had to give Lifman the benefit of the doubt.
Of the original six indecent assault charges against him, the seventh having fallen away because the witness could not be found, Lifman was granted discharge on four counts due to contradictory and poor evidence.
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