Cape Town brothel-keeper Amien Andrews, who offered young girls for sex and watched as two of them were raped, was on Friday jailed for 17 years.
Cape Town Regional Court magistrate Chris Naude jailed him for three years for keeping the Salt River brothel, known as Amien’s Girls, and an additional 14 years as an accomplice in the rape of the two teenagers.
Andrews (40), who is the father of six children, did not show any visible emotion as he heard the sentence.
According to his attorney, Chris Smit, he intends to appeal.
Naude said Andrews is a danger to the community as he has several previous convictions for serious assault, some inflicted on prisoners while he was in jail.
Not even jail sentences have curbed Andrews’s violent tendencies.
He said Andrews has been unwilling to accept responsibility for the goings-on in the brothel and has shown no remorse.
Naude said he considered the two rape counts as exceptionally serious because the girls had gone to the brothel for a party and had then been forced to have sex.
The two victims had been robbed of their innocence and the court has to hand down stiff sentences for violence or sexual abuse against children.
Andrews did not rape the girls himself but it was despicable that he had watched as they were raped and failed to do anything about it.
Naude also condemned the fact that Andrews had been running a brothel with young girls offered for sex.
He described as ”dastardly” the fact that children were sexually abused there.
Present at the sentencing were members of the child-rights group Molo Songololo, who staged protests outside the court this week against the sexual exploitation of children.
Project manager Vanessa Anthony said Molo Songololo is overjoyed that justice has at last been done.
The magistrate has taken into account the feelings of the community, she said.
Friday’s sentencing marks the end of a marathon trial during which seven of Andrews’s co-accused either died or were acquitted on all charges.
The remaining five co-accused, including two women, were on Thursday pronounced not guilty. — Sapa