Roland Routh
Windhoek-High Court Judge President Petrus Damaseb will preside over the case of South African citizen and alleged paedophile, Marthinus Pretorius, it was announced.
Pretorius faces 13 charges of rape and trafficking in persons, alternatively committing a sexual act with a child below 16 years of age, for allegedly defiling three minor girls while he was attached at Swakopmund’s Rössing Mine in 2012.
He will appear this morning before the judge president for fixing of his trial dates.
The State alleges that Pretorius paid Johanna Lukas, who has since been convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison by Judge President Damaseb in 2015, N$10,000 to bring the underage girls to his residence in Swakopmund where he would commit sexual acts with them. Pretorius fled Namibia to his native South Africa five years ago after his deviant scheme came to light – avoiding arrest for sexual crimes against the minor girls.
During the trial of Lukas, it came to light that the girls were paid by Pretorius anything from N$100 to N$300 at a time.
He was arrested in Johannesburg, South Africa in March 2016 after the Namibian authorities asked the South African authorities to extradite him to Namibia to stand trial on his alleged misdeeds, but was only extradited to Namibia in December last year due to a long extradition process.
He will be defended by Mese Tjituri, on instructions of legal aid, and Felicitas Sikerete-Vendura will prosecute.
According to the charge sheet, he raped the first complainant who was 13 years old at the time the victim was brought to him by Lukas on April 23, 2012. The State submits thus that he is guilty of trafficking in humans which is an offence under the Prevention of Organised Crimes Act, and raped her.
He faces nine charges in respect of the first complainant – four trafficking in persons and five rape counts. It is alleged by the State that he received and raped the girl once in April and then another five times during May, 2012.
In respect of the second victim, the State alleges that Pretorius received and raped the girl who was 14 years old at the time once during the month of June 2012. He also received another underage girl during the month of June, 2012 and raped her, the charge sheet states.
He will be kept in custody at the Windhoek Correctional Facility’s section for trial-awaiting prisoners.