A South African man who has admitted guilt on six rape charges for paying to have sex with two teenage girls at Swakopmund in 2012 was found guilty on five counts of trafficking in persons as well on Friday.
Marthinus Pretorius (49) received the two girls in question – then 13 and 14 years old respectively – at his house at Swakopmund for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and as a result was guilty of trafficking in persons in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, deputy judge president Hosea Angula found in a judgement delivered in the Windhoek High Court.
Noting that Pretorius is a former police officer, Angula reasoned that it could be accepted he knew or ought to have known it was an offence to have intercourse with minor girls.
The judge said Pretorius’ defence on the trafficking charges was that the girls had gone to his house voluntarily and agreed to have intercourse with him for money, and that he did not detain them at his house against their will. Angula rejected that defence, after noting that Pretorius conceded during the trial that he suspected one of the girls may have been under age, as she acted like a child.
The two girls were taken to Pretorius’ house by a woman, Johanna Lukas, who in 2015 was sentenced to an effective prison term of 13 years after she was also convicted of rape and trafficking in persons.
Lukas was one of the four state witnesses who testified during Pretorius’ trial. She told the court she was 19 years old and working as a cashier at a shop at Swakopmund when she met Pretorius in 2012 and he asked her to find girls younger than herself for him.
Pretorius was employed by a mining company in the Erongo region at that stage. He was arrested in South Africa in March 2016 and extradited from South Africa in December 2017 to face the charges in Namibia.
He admitted guilt on six counts of rape at the start of his trial in October 2018, but pleaded not guilty to the five counts of trafficking in persons.
The incidents took place in April, May and June 2012.
With the judge’s verdict delivered, defence counsel Zagrys Grobler informed Angula that Pretorius wants three witnesses – including his two daughters, who are living in South Africa – to testify in mitigation of sentence before the court sentences him.
State advocate Felistas Shikerete-Vendura said the state also plans to present the court with testimony from three witnesses.
Angula postponed the matter to 20 January, after Grobler indicated Pretorius’ daughters would not be able to travel to Namibia before January.
Pretorius is being held in custody.
