PORT ELIZABETH - CONVICTED RAPIST & DISGRACED TENNIS PRO BOB HEWITT RELEASED FROM ST ALBANS PRISON

Convicted rapist Bob Hewitt is back home with his family in Port Elizabeth after he was released on parole on Friday.

The Department of Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxmalo confirmed to The Star on Friday that the 80-year old man left the St Albans Prison where he had been detained since 2016 and was now home.

"He's now a parolee and will serve the reminder of his sentence in the community.

Nxumalo said the department had followed all the proper channels before his release and that consultations with the victims had  been done.

"Remember that the law stipulates that a person serve half of their sentence before being considered for parole. Hewitt served beyond half of his sentence," Nxumalo said.

In 2016, Bob Hewitt was sentenced to six years behind bars for raping two teens and sexually assaulting a third while he was their tennis coach in the 1980s and 90s.

He was due for a parole last year but the matter caused furore and his parole placement was reviewed and set aside.

This was after it emerged that a parole board hearing had been held where a decision was made that Hewitt would be released on September 23 last year, having served three years. However, his victims had not been advised that a parole board hearing was going to be held.

Following this, Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola called for a review of the decision "in the interests of justice".

In October 2015, The Boston Globe reported that Heather Crowe Conner, a Massachusetts, US  woman, had won her civil case against the Hewitt after accusing him of sexually abusing her in the 1970s while he was her tennis coach.

A US judge had ordered Hewitt  pay nearly R16.6 million ($1.2m) for the woman's emotional distress as well as her past and future mental health care.