Girl kept as sex slave: suspect waits for bail decision
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Pretoria - The freedom of the man accused of abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl hangs in the balance following the postponement of his bail application on Monday.
The 36-year-old Nigerian national, who cannot be named until he pleads, was arrested last Thursday after the girl managed to escape from a Sunnyside flat in which he had allegedly kept her against her will since early September.
The man made a brief appearance in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court where the matter was postponed for further bail information.
According to police, the girl, whose name is known to the Pretoria News but cannot be released because she is a minor, is in Grade 7 and lives in Mamelodi.
Sunnyside police spokesman Captain Daniel Mavimbela said the girl was reported missing from her home in early September.
When she was found last Thursday she said she had left home to meet friends at a nearby park outside Silverton.
Mavimbela said she had come across an unknown girl who led her to the Sunnyside flat where the alleged abductor lived. According to court documents, the man lives at Manhattan Flats.
The charge sheet indicated that he was being charged with kidnapping, and for locking her up inside a room from September until December 1, when he was arrested.
He is also being charged with contravention of Sections 4, 7 and 5 of the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act.
The man also faces a rape charge. The charge sheet states that the girl was repeatedly raped.
Mavimbela said that the girl told police that when she woke up the morning after she arrived at the flat, she saw the man sitting on the bed but the other girl was not there.
“From that point on the man allegedly kept the young girl as his sex slave and raped her repeatedly,” he said.
Police said it was also alleged that he tried to groom her into prostitution and he beat her for not attracting enough clients on the streets. A passer-by saw her attempting to escape from the flat and assisted her.
The man, who was not in the flat at the time she escaped, was arrested that same day.