Carel “Callie” Schoeman. (Photo: Isabel Venter/ Maroela Media).
The lawyer from Heidelberg who is accused of having sex with a minor and later trying to buy her from her mother, his application for dismissal failed in the High Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Judge Rian Strydom dismissed Carel “Callie” Schoeman’s application and said there was insufficient evidence to justify his application.
Adv. Cronjé Kriel, on behalf of Schoeman, argued that although it was never disputed that Schoeman hired a prostitute for sex, he “was not aware that the prostitute was a minor, or possibly forced in any way to provide the services”.
“What is disputed is that the applicant (Schoeman) forced the girl to travel somewhere with him or have sexual intercourse with him at all. He also strongly denies that he kidnapped her or threatened her in any way, especially not with his firearm,” argued Kriel.
He also told the court that more than 70 charges on which Schoeman and his co-accused, the girl’s mother, are facing, amount to duplication.
Kriel argued that the state had not produced a “single” piece of evidence regarding these complaints.
He also pointed out that in many of the charges, the state relies heavily on the testimony that the girl herself gave in court.
“The testimony of the girl will still have to be weighed, analyzed and compared with the rest of the state’s witnesses. In her testimony in chief as well as in her cross-examination, she gave three versions about her age. It is important to note that she did not inform the court that, when she had the opportunity to inform Schoeman of her true age, she only did so after he had undergone a lie detector test. This version is consistent with that of Schoeman that the girl never told him she was 13 years old.”
He also reminded the court to be careful with the testimony of a single minor witness.
However, Strydom said in his ruling that only Schoeman will be able to testify what he really thought when he used the girl’s so-called services and whether he really believed she was over 18.
“What was going through his mind? The court needs all this evidence to make a reasonable finding and that evidence can only be placed before the court by the applicant (Schoeman),” Strydom found.
After this, the mother herself moved into the witness stand.
Court proceedings continue.
Schoeman is accused together with the mother of, among other things, rape, human trafficking and the production of child pornography. Together they stand trial on more than 70 charges which include child trafficking, failure to report a victim of human trafficking, sexual assault, possession and production of child pornography, child sexual abuse and pointing a firearm.
The state claims the girl was 13 years old when Schoeman hired her as a prostitute and later also paid “lobola” to buy her from her mother.
According to the state, the mother also rented out the girl’s younger sister, then 10 years old, to other men as a sex worker.