Johannesburg - The defence lawyer of Johannesburg model agency boss Dawie de Villiers on Tuesday said that the alleged rape victim was liberal with the truth and that his client should be acquitted on all charges.
During closing arguments at the High Court sitting at Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court, defence advocate Jacques Pienaar said the alleged rape victim had only said she had been raped because she was under 16 and not because it was against her will.
De Villiers, is facing a range of charges including rape, sexual assault, sexual grooming, intimidation, fraud and possession of child pornography. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
“It’s common cause that she confessed about her lie. When she was cross examined about lying to her dad, she said yes and when she was asked why she said it was because she didn’t want to stop modelling, which I find strange,” Pienaar said.
“She could’ve come clean with warrant officer Banks but never disclosed her previous sexual experiences with de Villiers; she admitted that she lied about where the alleged rape took place.”
Pienaar said when he asked the alleged victim what happened during the third sexual encounter for it to be considered rape, she couldn’t answer.
He referred to evidence given by de Villiers’s stepmother who provided plans of their house and said that there were people in the house at all times as she ran her business from there.
“The victim stated that the incident happened in the living room, it couldn’t have happened,” Pienaar said.
“With the greatest respect she was a single witness, the rules are applicable and she isn’t credible and she is lying.”
Earlier, Pienaar said that de Villiers should also be acquitted on the charge of exposing his children to pornography.
“These children are innocent participants, being a girl who looks up to these girls you follow them to the bathroom,” Pienaar said.
He later said that the girl who said that de Villiers pressed his penis against her and put his hands under her skirt was lying and was also a single witness.
Pienaar told the court that all the people that brought charges against his client, which included sexual grooming, fraud and intimidation, were lying.
Judge Cassim Moosa questioned Pienaar about an alleged conspiracy against de Villiers.
Pienaar earlier in the trial said that some witnesses were part of the conspiracy because of the conversations that they had had, and that the alleged raped victim was used to “nail” de Villiers.
“The court must take into consideration where it was shown that the Blackberry Messenger pin was not from de Villiers’s phone,” he said.
Pienaar said that messages that were entered as evidence weren’t proof that a rape had taken place and were part of the conspiracy theory.
“One would’ve expected the content to be different and for more admissions to be made,” Judge Cassim Moosa said.
Pienaar argued that identity theft was possible and the court should question whether indeed it was de Villiers who took part in the alleged conversations.
Moosa referred to various pictures that were part of the courts exhibits and asked Pienaar how old the girls in the pictures looked and whether they looked like young girls or not.
Pienaar argued that the sites de Villiers viewed had disclaimers that none of the girls were under 18-years-old.
African News Agency