15th June 2024
A couple has been sentenced to lengthy prison terms after being convicted of human trafficking and operating a brothel.
The 34-year-old Nigerian national, Jude Ikenna Ijegulu, and his 29-year-old partner, Elizabeth Botes, from Centurion in Pretoria, received their sentences in the Pretoria High Court.
In addition, Ijegulu was sentenced to two life terms for two counts of rape and an additional two years for being in the country illegally.
This was according to South Africa Broadcasting Corporation.
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SABC news on Saturday reported that the court ordered that his name be added to the National Register of Sexual Offenders.
National Prosecuting Authority’s Gauteng spokesperson, Lumka Mahanjana says they welcome the sentences.
He said, “From November 2016 to September 2017 the two ran a brothel in Centurion where they kept two women. The man raped the two women, supplied them with drugs as well as physically and sexually assaulting them.
The couple would also instruct the two victims to render sexual services to clients. The Judge found that the two violated the Human Trafficking Act. The man enslaved the two victims and fed them drugs.”
