The alleged brothel queen of Brooklyn has denied bringing women from Springbok to fuel Cape Town’s sex trade, saying they were already prostitutes.
Leandre Williams, 39, took the stand at the Western Cape High Court this week as she defended herself in the ongoing human trafficking trial.
The mother of four from Springbok is facing a host of charges along with her husband Edward Ayuk and his cousin, Yannick, relating to a brothel they allegedly ran in Brooklyn.
According to the State’s case, Leandre is accused of luring women from the Northern Cape dorpie to the Mother City with the promise of jobs but then forcing them into a life of prostitution.
Questioned by her husband’s lawyer, Bashier Sibda, Leandre rekked her bek about the State witnesses.
She said with the exception of one, whom she was close to, she knew all of the State witnesses because like her, they were prostitutes, and lived on the same street.
Leandre said in Springbok, they’d go to a club, and next to it was a hotel and they would take their clients there to “conduct business”.
She smiled as she recounted her days working on a nearby diamond mine.
“It was a diamond mine and we go on pay day. It was a nice business day. We stay for the weekend and then the Monday, they [the men] go back to work.”
Leandre denied sending any women to her husband to become sex workers, except one she had asked to look after her children.
She was also confused about her arrest.
“[Springbok] is a small town. Everybody knew about our lifestyle. If I was doing these things [human trafficking] they would have demanded I leave but I was living there for a whole year and nobody said anything.”
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