A man and his girlfriend have appeared in court on charges of kidnapping four street kids, rape and exposing their genitals.
|||Durban - A Malvern man and his girlfriend appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on charges of kidnapping four street children, rape and of exposing or displaying their genital organs.
The couple, who cannot be named until they plead to the charges, are alleged to have held the boys captive for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
The 32-year-old man sobbed in the witness box on Wednesday in his appeal for bail over claims of assault and sexual abuse.
He said he was just doing his bit for humanity when he took the street children home and provided them with food and shelter. In return they were to protect his property from criminals.
Three boys - two aged 15 and one 13 - positively identified the man, when he was arrested by the Bellair SAPS at his home last week, as the person who had picked them up from the street and promised them employment.
Instead, they were alleged to have been locked in a granny flat and assaulted on a regular basis, the court heard.
The investigating officer, Sergeant Samantha Paul, said in April last year four boys were picked up from the street and held captive for a few weeks in a granny flat until they escaped.
The 15-year-old was approached by the man in the Point area, and said he was promised work and was paid R50 after he completed chores such as washing cars and cleaning the garden at the accused’s home, Paul said.
When he requested to go back to the Durban CBD later that day, he alleged the man assaulted him and forced him into the granny flat and locked the doors.
The teen claimed he was threatened by the man to touch his girlfriend on her private parts and when he did not comply, he was beaten.
This occurred several times a day until the boy escaped about a month later, Paul said.
The second boy, also 15, was picked up by the man in June last year under the same circumstances and was allegedly forced to steal from shops while the man kept the shopkeeper occupied.
The boy escaped in August when the accused forgot to lock the door to the flat, the court heard.
It was unclear how the 13-year-old boy, who was picked up from the CBD in January, had escaped, she said.
The fourth boy, aged 12, was held captive in April and was still on the property when the accused were arrested, the court heard.
Paul said when one of the boys was recaptured after he had tried to escape, the man assaulted him and cut him with a knife on his leg.
The boy said the man had told him if he tried to escape again he would cut off his leg, she said.
Investigations were initiated after I Care, a non-profit organisation that helps street children, alerted police.
* Care enlisted the services of Mark Hardwick, a private investigator who took statements from three of the boys.
In the witness box on Wednesday the man referred to his co-accused as his wife, despite them not being legally married.
He said he had no idea why the complainants would accuse him of such acts.
The man, who buys and sells cars for a living from his home in Hillary, told the court that he had met the first complainant in 2011 at a set of traffic lights in the Greyville area, where his girlfriend worked.
He said the boy would run to him when he spotted his car and ask for cigarettes and food.
“We felt sorry for him. He would wait for us every day and try to grab our attention.”
Then one day, the boy asked him where he lived and he told him, the man said, adding that a few days later, the boy arrived at his home.
The couple let the boy in and allowed him to stay in the granny flat on the property.
“There were a lot of burglaries in the area. I thought if I let him stay, it would be safer. He could be the alarm.”
One day, after an errand to a nearby Spar, the boy never returned, he said.
He took in the second complainant after he approached him at a stop street, saying he was a friend of the first complainant.
A few weeks later, a fire gutted the Wendy house on his property, destroying his car and partially burning the flat, he said.
When the area was cleared, he said the boy “disappeared”.
The man told the court he had heard from another complainant that the boy started the fire so that he could move into the main building and watch TV.
The incident was not reported to the police, he said.
A few months later a 13-year-old he had never seen before arrived at his home asking about the fire and looking for a place to stay, he said. The teen allegedly told him that the previous boy had been bragging about it.
The boy was allowed to stay as he appeared to be harmless, he said, but a few weeks later, he said the teen ran away after taking R600 in cash, watches and a cellphone.
The fourth boy, aged 12, who was at the accused’s home at the time of the arrest, had been picked up at a Durban suburb after he had begged the man for a place to stay.
The man said the boy was a friend of the others.
He said when the police burst into his home last week they took the boy aside and “put things in his head”.
The man said he feared for his safety because the complainants knew where he lived.
The matter was adjourned to Friday for cross-examination.
rizwana.umar@inl.co.za
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