Three of the five people accused of selling a young girl for sex have been granted R500 bail each.
|||Cape Town - Three of the five people accused of selling a young girl for sex have been granted bail.
Marantha Lotrict, 28, Evelina Fortuin, 30, and Denise Muller, 33, breathed a sigh of relief in the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court on Thursday when Magistrate Zwelindumile Sogwagwa set their bail at R500.
This was despite requests from the State to set bail at R5 000 each.
The 14-year-old girl, whose abuse began when she was 11 years old, was groomed to be a child prostitute and allegedly sold for as little as R20 to men by her mother, Lotrict, Fortuin and Muller.
In November, the little girl raised the alarm and told her school friend and teacher what had happened.
Outside the courtroom, Lotrict and her mother Carolien cried tears of joy.
“I’m not guilty. I never sold that girl for sex,” she tells the Daily Voice.
“I am not even that child’s neighbour. Police just picked me up for questioning and then they charged me.”
Carolien says she is happy that her daughter can finally come home.
“Her baby is missing her. He cries for her all the time,” the granny explains.
Lotrict has four more kids.
Muller was transported back to Pollsmoor prison where her aunt would settle her bail.
The five are charged with sexual exploitation, human trafficking and living off the proceeds of immorality.
The young victim’s mom and her partner remain in custody.
The stepfather is also charged with rape.
“This girl’s mother abused her trust and neglected her responsibilities as a mother. It is supposed to come naturally to take care of a child, your own child,” said Sogwagwa.
He said the stepfather, while not her real father, was the father figure in the house.
“You abused this position and failed in your duties,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Daily Voice can reveal that a doctor and three Mossel Bay men who allegedly paid to abuse the girl have still not been arrested.
The case will resume on Tuesday March 19.
Daily Voice