Daniel Weclaw’s book about his father.
Cape Town - The son of a former Camps Bay police station commander, who faced charges of child pornography and indecent assault and was found dead inside his home in 2021, has started a journey of healing via TikTok where he shares extracts from his book and makes a public apology to his father’s victims.
“The Brutal Truth Behind My Evil Father,” written by Daniel Weclaw was published in 2023, where he shares his harrowing story of being the son of a paedophile who hid his crimes for years and the scars that it left behind.
Zbiegniew Andrzej Weclaw, 65, made headlines following his arrest in 2020.
It had been Daniel who had made the shocking discovery and had his father arrested and charged after finding multiple boxes of DVDs containing child pornography.
Weclaw was found dead inside his home in Vredehoek in 2021.
This week, Daniel said he would be embarking on a 3000 kilometre walk from Alexander Bay to St Lucia where he hoped to meet survivors like himself, in a journey of healing.
He said via his TikTok account that victims of his father had reached out to him while following him on social media.
Daniel also shares intimate details of the day his father’s body was discovered to the day he had found out about his father's dark secret.
He also dedicated a video to apologising to his father’s victims by naming them individually.
“So a lot of you know my story, you know who my father was,” said Daniel. “We found diaries and 8000 plus videos of child pornography that he had manufactured himself and was distributing. These are the names I found.”
More than 50 names were read out by Daniel in his video which had reached over 2000 people and had over 100 comments.
“If you were in Cape Town between 1980 to 2010, I just want to read the names I found in these diaries and DVD’s,” he added.
“I am sorry to the following people.”
He detailed how his father had claimed that everyone had skeletons in the closet when he made the shocking discovery and read an extract from his book.
“My heart sank as I went through the spindle and checked the names written on it,” he explained.
“There were boys' names and ages on it. Black Speedo aged 6, one video said.
“My blood went cold and saw my father still sleeping on his bed I knew this was the evidence I had been looking for my entire life. And that it was literally in front of me the whole time. There were all these other kids' names and it seemed I was not the only one who had suffered abuse by my father.
“Suddenly from not being afraid at all, I felt fear…”
“This was bigger than me now, I always knew, my father was sick. I knew I had to do something.
“That night I told him I was cleaning up the bar and I came across the spindles of DVDs and asked what they were all about, he immediately looked at me with a worried face and said he had made a lot of porn and that I must never watch them and he asked me to put it into a box and to rid of it and destroy it.
“I remember him saying everyone had skeletons in the closet and this was his.”
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