A convicted brothel queen from Milnerton took the stand to plead her case after being found guilty of human trafficking charges.
Leandre Williams, originally from Springbok, returned to the Western Cape High Court on Friday alongside her estranged husband Edward Ayuk and his cousin, Yannick, as sentencing proceedings got under way.
The trio who were accused of running a brothel in Brooklyn went on trial in November 2021 in the biggest human trafficking case before a local court for trafficking women from Springbok and the Eastern Cape.
They were slapped with over 40 charges including rape, kidnapping, assault and various other offences for running the suikerhuisie in Milnerton.
During the marathon trial, several women were transported from their hometowns to take the stand. They told the court of drug abuse, beatings and grim details of working on the streets of the Mother City.
Williams also took the stand in her own defence, denying she had trafficked any women from Springbok.
After the state closed its case, defence lawyer Advocate Bash Sibda successfully argued for Yannick’s acquittal on 27 charges.
They were later found guilty by Judge Alma de Wet on various charges and Williams was taken into custody.
Taking the stand on Friday, she told the court that she did not really understand what prostitution was until she was charged criminally. She explained that, as a young mother in Springbok, she met a club owner who offered her money for sex. The woman who formally testified about the sex trade in the diamond mines said, in her view, it was a “normal life”.
“He felt sexually attracted to me and offered me enough money to take care of me. At that time I didn’t know it was prostitution, I saw an opportunity and I grabbed it.
“He is married, yes. When he called me, I slept with him for money. I didn’t know it was prostitution. It went on and I met his friends in the industry. For us, it was just a normal life. You meet men, they buy you a beer and you go to bed with them.”
She also told the court that when she arrived in Parow, the first time she met Edward she accused him of using black magic to convince her to agree to marriage.
During court proceedings, probation reports for both cousins were handed to the court. While Edward maintained he was framed, Yannick said he was only in the country for four months at the time of his arrest and maintained his innocence.
The probation officer recommended imprisonment for both cousins but said he found that they were both candidates for rehabilitation.