Karoo farmer Louis Lategan waits as Makhanda judge begins rape and trafficking verdict

Karoo farmer Louis Lategan sat hunched over in the Makhanda High Court on Monday as Judge Judith Roberson began delivering judgment in his trial on charges of human trafficking, rape and related offences.

Judgment begins after postponement

The judge began going through the evidence relating to the charges against the livestock farmer. The judgment was due to continue on Tuesday. It had been scheduled to begin on Friday but was postponed after the judge fell.

Charges before the court

Lategan, who is 42, went on trial last year facing a total of 22 charges. The indictment includes: six counts of human trafficking, eight counts of rape, three counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm against children under 16, three counts of assault, and two charges relating to firearms and ammunition. One rape charge involving a girl under 18 was withdrawn during the trial after the State conceded her evidence was too weak to support a conviction.

State’s case and defence

The State says the advertised au pair jobs were a front and alleges Lategan recruited young women to live on his remote farm so he could drug and rape them. The indictment states:

“His true, real intention, however, was to acquire the presence of young women on the farm in order to exploit them sexually.”

The State told the court it alleges the women were given drinks that left them unable to remember what had happened and that the women had taken the jobs believing they would be caring for two children and nothing more.

Lategan pleaded not guilty to every charge and, when he took the stand in his own defence in November last year, said the sex had been consensual in each case. He told the court the women had been willing and that some of them had “They jumped into bed with me.”

Evidence shown in court

Police seized several items when Lategan was arrested in July 2023; the State told the court that photographs of those items were shown as evidence. The items the State listed included five sex toys, six tubes of lubricant, sealed condoms, knuckle dusters, a foot massage machine and a spray marketed as an aid to seduce women.

Allegations of intimidation and other incidents

The State set out accounts of how each of the six women came to the farm, what they told investigators about drinks that made them drowsy or lose memory, and incidents that followed. The indictment also details allegations of assaults involving children aged between eight and 13.

Procedural history and potential sentence

Lategan handed himself over to police with his attorney on July 3, 2023, and has been in custody since. He was refused bail in September 2023 and again in August 2024, and lost an appeal against the refusal in the Makhanda High Court in November 2024. The State is seeking life imprisonment as the prescribed minimum sentence if he is convicted on the trafficking and rape charges, on the basis that the State alleges the women were trafficked and raped more than once. The State is also asking for Lategan’s name to be placed on the National Register for Sex Offenders.

Defence contention about origins of the case

Defence counsel put it to the investigating team that Lategan’s ex-wife had built the case against him. Defence lawyer Danie Gouws read messages into the record in which the ex-wife told one of the women they

“will win the case”

. The State’s advocate Nickie Turner disputed that the messages were relevant.

The judge continued delivering her judgment on Tuesday.