13 [27] In consequence of these convictions, the appellant was suspended from practising as a dentist in 1993. He appealed against the suspension, but the appeal failed and the suspension took effect in May 1996. The appellant then started working for the Elwierda tour bus company as a bus driver. It was on one of the bus tours that he met Mrs B in 1997. He thereafter met the rest of the B family and quickly became a close family friend. According to the appellant, shortly after he had met the B family, he told the oldest son, F, then in matric, about his previous convictions. He thereafter told Mrs B about this as well. They were supportive and did not reject him and he remained friends with the whole family. When cross-examined about how it had come about that he told F about his previous convictions, the appellant replied that he had ‘simply felt that the family should know’. [28] According to the appellant, he had never slept over at the B family home in 1997. He had terminated his employment at Elwierda in January 1998 and had gone straight to his parents’ home in Warden, staying with them until the end of November 1998. He testified that he did not visit the B family home during 1998, apart from one brief visit in August or September, when he was in Pretoria for a sitting of the medical council. He had definitely not visited the B family on other occasions in 1998, as the engine of his motor vehicle packed up at the beginning of January of that year and he did not have transport. [29] He started practising as a dentist again, in Randfontein, on 1 December 1998 and in February 1999 moved into a flat close to his practice. He moved to another flat in Mimosa Street in Randfontein at the beginning of May 1999, which was where the B boys had slept over upon returning from their outing with him to the Aardklop festival in Potchefstroom. [30] The appellant testified further that he had started visiting the B family again from about February 1999. He slept over at the B home in Pretoria only four times during the course of 1999, as far as he could remember, and twice during the course of 2000 (in April and in May). When he stayed the night at the B home, he usually slept in A’s bedroom, where there were bunkbeds, and sometimes A slept in the room with him. According to the appellant, Mr and Mrs B had borrowed relatively large sums of money from him, the first such loan (in an amount of R2500) being made to