A SCARY, SCARY MAN - Six other women sought protection from Plett girlfriend ‘murderer’

AT LEAST six vrouens have now come forward with claims to have taken out protection orders against a Garden Route artist arrested for the brutal murder of an ex-police officer.

Those protection orders painted the accu evan van Druten, who appeared in the Plettenberg Bay Magistrate’s court on Wednesday, as ‘a scary, scary man’.

Cutting a lonely figure in the dock, Van Druten, 53, was formally charged with the murder of ex-police detective Nicky van Heerden, whose brutalised body was found lying in the sand at Keurbooms Beach on Sunday night.

A bakkie believed to belong to Van Druten was found right next to Van Heerden; her body, police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg said, was riddled with injuries.

Van Heerden, whose given name was Anneke, had recently met Van Druten and had introduced him to some of her family members on Saturday.

Though celebrated for his driftwood sculptures a string of women have described Van Druten as a “scary, scary man”.

Some have even gone so far as to say Van Heerden’s murder could have been prevented had protection orders been taken seriously.

They added a voice note the blonde-haired woman was believed to have recorded shortly before her death showed she was in distress and desperately needed help.

Samantha Cartwright, of Wilderness, said she spoke out to prevent other women from being terrorised.

Cartwright, 39, said her first encounter with Van Druten was three years ago at a festival.

“He put me in a corner and [allegedly] attacked me for no reason and was also attacking my friends, and I had to tell him to stop,” she said, agreeing to be named.

“I didn’t feel safe around him … he was hitting on me and I kept saying no, but he continued.

She said she later helped women obtain protection orders against him.

“The protection can only do so much,” Cartwright said.

“I have been trying to prevent exactly what had happened to Nicky.

One of Van Druten’s ex-girlfriends, who spoke to IOL on condition she not be named, said she “so easily” could have ended up dead.

She said: “He strangled me and threatened to leave me in desolate areas a number of times.

“I would feel very afraid when he attacked me because of the sense that he could kill me.”