Durban - Durban North resident and member of the local community police forum (CPF), Leon Barnard, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to keeping a brothel in the suburb.
Durban Regional Court magistrate Fariedha Mohamed fined Barnard R6 000 (or three years in jail) and imposed a three-year suspended jail sentence.
Police, Home Affairs officials and members of the Asset Forfeiture Unit raided the Durban North home in November and arrested Barnard, his common-law wife, Nittaya Norrison, and 12 other Thai women who also lived on the property.
All charges have been withdrawn against Norrison, and the 12 Thai women pleaded guilty to keeping a brothel and living in the country illegally.
In his written plea, read out to the court by his attorney, Ridewaan Sayed, Barnard admitted to living on the property with Norrison, also a Thai national, and the 12 women. He said Norrison had grown up under extremely impoverished conditions in Thailand and was therefore very sympathetic towards her fellow citizens.
She “understands how difficult it is for women, especially those from the rural areas of Thailand, to generate income to support themselves and their families”.
Barnard said, via his plea, that there was a high demand for Thai masseuse internationally, and the 12 women had all come to South Africa to generate an income providing massage services.
He explained that all these women came to SA voluntarily and were responsible for their travel arrangements, as well as obtaining the necessary permits from the Department of Home Affairs to legalise their stay in South Africa.
Each of the women, he said, paid a monthly rental of R2 800 and they also managed their own kitty, where each of them contributed R100 from the money they received from clients which they used for their own expenses.
“It had come to my attention that some of the girls, in addition to massage services, were providing sexual gratification to clients in the form of manual stimulation, oral sex and sexual intercourse,” his plea read.
“I established that the reason they did this was because they received additional monetary reward for these ‘extras’, and it also resulted in the clients using their services more regularly, which meant more generated income.”
He said because of their limited opportunities to generate income, he allowed this practice, with the proviso that if they were caught using drugs they would have to leave.
The 62-year-old admitted to continuing to live on the property with the knowledge that some of these women were providing sexual services to their clients and he admitted to benefiting financially, as their earnings were used to pay him rent.
During arguments for sentencing, Sayed said his client was remorseful and pleaded at an early stage, not waiting until he was “certain the walls would close around him”.
Sayed said Barnard had facilitated the Thai women’s deportation at his own expense.
Barnard, said Sayed, had also assisted police in an unrelated matter concerning prostitution and possible human trafficking. His attorney argued for a fine to be imposed or a three-year prison sentence.
State advocate Val Dafel argued that Barnard had no previous convictions and also said the offence was a nuisance in the community - a brothel being run in a residential area.
“This house was near homes and schools. The community had to deal with clients coming and going at all hours,” she said.
She asked the court to add a suspended sentence so that it would act as a deterrent.
Mohamed said while the court took into account that Barnard did not waste the court’s time and also financed the Thai women’s return, she said the court could not lose sight of the fact that this was a serious offence. It also affected the community.
She agreed to the return of Barnard’s assets, seized during the raid.
Speaking outside court, Barnard told the Daily News it was never his intention to disturb the community or cause any harm, especially as he was a member of the CPF.
He said he ran an exclusive guest house and the ladies offered a massaging service.