“Please don’t leave me here.”
This was the desperate plea of a young woman who was forced into a life of prostitution when cops busted her alleged pimp, the Western Cape High Court has heard.
The first state witness in the human trafficking trial against Springbok mom Leandre Williams, her husband Edward Ayuk and brother-in-law Yannick took the stand yesterday and told the court of the victims’ plight.
The trio face over 40 charges after allegedly operating a brothel in Milnerton where they forced unsuspecting victims to use drugs and work as prostitutes.
According to the indictment, Leandre is accused of recruiting three women from Springbok by promising them work in Cape Town.
Former police sergeant Alfonso De Leeuw told the court what happened on the day Edward was busted.
De Leeuw said when they arrived at the house where the women were being kept, he found three men sitting outside a closed door and asked them to open it.
He says as he walked in, he saw two women and after identifying himself as a police officer, one woman shouted: “Yes!”
The officer said he called a female officer to speak to the women, who told them that they were being held against their will.
“She said ‘please don’t leave me here’ and Sergeant Carelse took them.
“The door was closed and when I tried to open it, the black woman told me the doors do not open from the inside and I had to knock for one of the men to open for us,” testified De Leeuw.
Under cross-examination, it was revealed that spoons were placed on the outside of the doors and used as handles to prevent the women from escaping.