Windhoek
Swakopmund resident Johanna Lukas was yesterday convicted of all 11 charges she faced in the Windhoek High Court by Deputy Chief Justice Petrus Damaseb.
Lukas was convicted on four counts of trafficking in persons and four counts of rape under coercive circumstances in respect of one complainant and another count of trafficking in persons and rape without coercive circumstances in respect of a second complainant.
The state charged her after it came to light that she recruited underage children for sex with a South African citizen who was working for Rössing Uranium in Swakopmund during April and May 2012.
The culprit, Marthinus Pretorius, evaded arrest and is currently believed to be in his native South Africa.
“I find that the state had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused was recruited by fugitive Martin Pretorius to procure under aged girls for his sexual depravities, Judge President and Deputy Chief Justice Damaseb told Lukas. He further said that this was a case where either the two minor complainants – one was thirteen and one fourteen – are making up things, or the things they say in fact happened.
While each complainant is a single witness to the allegation that it was the accused who took them to Pretorius to be raped according to the Judge President, a court is entitled to convict if satisfied that the evidence is true and satisfactory in all respects.
While in this instance the single witnesses are minors, they gave their evidence in a detailed and concise manner, the JP remarked and came across as credible.
While he has to exercise the utmost care in instances of single witnesses, he was satisfied that the complainants told the truth, the Judge President stated.
He went on to say that the two complainants because of their poor backgrounds were in a position of vulnerability and thus susceptible for sexual exploitation for material benefits.
He further said that he finds it incredible that the accused would take a vulnerable child to someone she did not know and more so that she left the child in the company of the same man.
This totally contradicts her claims that she did not know that Pretorius raped the complainants and corroborates the version of the state that she was an active and willing accomplice.
He said that he has no doubt that Lukas through inducement of material benefits lured the minor girls to Pretorius. According to the judge the explanation the accused gave for why she took the first complainant to the house of Pretorius is not reasonably possibly true. Lukas claimed that she took the complainant to meet Pretorius as he wanted to establish an organisation to help vulnerable children from the DRC settlement in Swakopmund.
The Judge President said that the accused entangled herself in a web of lies from which she had no chance of escape.
This was evident by her denial that she knew Pretorius before the first time she took the first complainant to his house, to her denials that she had further contact with him.
This was confirmed by the cellphone records that showed that she was in contact with Pretorius for a “mind-boggling” 1 360 times stretching over 80 days.
The fact that during the same period Lukas was in “nauseatingly” regular contact with the first complaint proves that she was the instigator of the sexual liaisons between the minor child and the sexual deviant Pretorius, the judge stressed.