STATE TO ASK COURT IMPOSE SEVERE SENTENCE IN THE WELLINGTON SERIAL MATTER
The State will ask the high to impose the prescribed minimum sentences on all the charges the Wellington serial rapist and serial killer, Johan Williams, has been convicted and where it applies. It will also ask the court to send a strong emphatic message when sentencing him on all the charges for which he is convicted where there are no prescribed minimum sentences. The High Court of South Africa: Western Cape Division, Cape Town convicted Williams on three counts of murder, four counts of rape, three counts of attempted rape, six counts of kidnapping, housebreaking with intent to commit arson and arson, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and failure to comply with a protection order. He was acquitted on a rape charge after his defence counsel applied for Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure, asking the court to discharge him due to insufficient evidence. The body of one of his victims had decomposed, and the State couldn’t prove beyond reasonable doubt that the victim was sexually assaulted.
Sentencing proceedings will resume on 04 March 2024, after the court is satisfied by the State’s case, the accused’s Section 220 admissions by the accused and his pointing out, as proof beyond reasonable doubt that Williams, perpetrated the crimes he has been convicted of. Williams’ reign of terror in the Wellington farming community started around 2016 when he targeted vulnerable women who were either looking for employment opportunities or financial assistance. After kidnapping them, he would confiscate their phones, and answer them when their relatives phoned lying that they were either in the shower, at work, unavailable and later not responding at all. He would even pretend to be the victim and request the families of the victims to send him money, and some did.
One of the victims was his girlfriend’s mother who was kidnapped on 16 July 2012, and he only pointed out her body at Helpmekaar Farm, seven months after her disappearance. Her remains were found with a neck scarf with three knots. He also kidnapped a Kuilsriver young woman, whom he promised employment. This is after he befriended her family, had Christmas lunch with them, was entrusted with her by the family when she went to meet him for an employment opportunity, and the victim even called him ‘Oom Johan’. The young woman was found strangled with a black and white sock around her neck with a double knot and two sticks kept in the knot to enable him to tighten the knot with the sticks. She was face down when found. Another desperate young woman was also kidnapped when she responded to his offer of employment opportunity. Her body was found on 4 July 2018, with two black shoelaces around her neck with a twig in the knot that was tied double or triple and tied to the right side of her thyroid. Direct force was applied to her neck which caused injuries and blunt force was applied to her head. She was also found face down.
Williams was also charged and convicted with three counts of kidnapping his girlfriend who is also the mother of her daughter, attempting to rape her and raping her several times including making her take her clothes off in the rain and raping. He also raped her in front of her minor son. Her sin was applying and obtaining a protection order against him as he abused her. Matters became worse for her when she moved out and was romantically involved. He went around looking for her even burnt his former girlfriend’s grandmother’s house, that of her mother and a house adjoined to that of her mother. He threatened to kill everyone if the former girlfriend did not come back to him. During arguments, Senior State Adv Maria Marshall described the accused as a dangerous man who preyed on vulnerable and desperate women. He caused the families of the deceased to believe that their relatives were still alive by telling them lies about their whereabouts or how they left his sight. He absolved himself of anything that happened to them until he was caught. He then pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, Adv Nicolette Bell, expressed shock at the level of cruelty the accused exerted on the poor, vulnerable and desperate women. “All these desperate women saw in him was someone who would help them out of a situation they found themselves in. He took advantage of their trust, and the trust of their families, violated them and killed them in the most brutal way leaving their bodies at the mercy of elements. I am satisfied that our hardworking team of investigations and prosecution has reached their very crucial stage of securing convictions on almost all the charges preferred against him. we will ask the court to impose the most severe sentence against to show that it frowns upon gender-based violence and femicide,” she promised.
