A 31-year-old man accused of keeping girls as sex slaves in an underground hideout is expected to appear in the Cape High Court on Wednesday.
Johannes Mowers was believed to be behind a two-year reign of terror in the Hemel en Aarde community in Hermanus and is believed to have kept under-aged girls as sex slaves in a hide-out.
Mowers was arrested in March after he had been on the run from police. On arrest he led police to a four-year-old girl — who he claimed was his daughter — and a 14-year-old girl, who was allegedly abducted in December 2005 on Diepgat farm.
The girls had been kept in an underground chamber on a river bank on Majeane farm.
Mowers is linked to about 20 other cases including rape, abduction, housebreaking and theft.
In March this year he was sentenced to three years in prison for escaping from custody in 2003. He appeared before the Caledon Magistrate’s Court and pleaded guilty to charges of theft and escaping from police custody.
He was sentenced to one year imprisonment for the theft of R2 400 from a former employer, suspended for four years, and three years for escaping from police custody in November 2003. — Sapa