Russian national Alexander Krylov has admitted having sex in 2017 with five under-age girls, but has denied raping them, saying he paid them N$100 each. He further denied that he was aware they were under-aged.
The 57-year-old Krylov and his Namibian counterpart Anna Katrina Engelbrecht (29) pleaded not guilty to 42 counts of rape and child trafficking in addition to a charge of supplying minors with cigarettes before Windhoek High Court acting Judge Claudia Claasen. According to a plea explanation submitted by his lawyer Marinus Scholtz, the co-accused of Krylov called him during May 2017 and told him there was a girl who wanted to meet up with him.
He then went to where Engelbrecht said they would be in Kuisebmond and spoke to the girl who wanted money and told her he will pay for sex.
She agreed and they went to his flat where she asked him for a cigarette, which he gave her, Krylov stated.
He went on to say that the girl was a bit small in stature and that he asked her age and she replied that she was 17 and was done with school.
He further said the girl was well developed and he did not bother to further ask about her age before having sexual intercourse with her.
He continued he later also had intercourse with another girl and he paid them N$100 each and dropped them off in town. According to Krylov, the complainant started contacting him regularly and he would pick her up for sex against payment and that whenever she would contact him for money, he would give between N$50 and N$100 if he had.
Krylov went on to say that around the beginning of June 2017, the girl would bring along some of her friends and he would have sexual intercourse with them for payment.
None of these ladies looked like children, he said, and added “they were not going to school, they were smoking – even at my flat – and they were quite experienced when it came to sex”.
According to him, he never forced any of the girls to have sex with him, or to do anything they did not freely and voluntarily want to do.
He further said he would give the girls cigarettes whenever they would ask him, but denied supplying them.
Engelbrecht corroborated what Krylov in a plea explanation submitted on her behalf and said further that she knew the complainants smoked.
She further said she overheard them at one stage making jokes that Krylov paid them too little and they were thinking of blackmailing him and implicating him in having raped them.
The trial is continuing in camera, and Krylov and Engelbrecht are represented by Marinus Scholtz and the State by Palmer Khumalo.
rrouth@nepc.com.na