Alleged Russian paedophile wants discharge
Russian national Alexander Krylof (57) and his Namibian counterpart Anna Katrina Engelbrecht (29), who admitted he had intercourse with at least five under-aged girls during 2017 but denied he raped any of them, want the court to dismiss the charges against them.
They will apply for a section 174 discharge on 5 July before Windhoek High Court acting judge Claudia Claasen.
Krylof and Engelbrecht pleaded not guilty to 42 counts of rape and child trafficking in addition to a charge of supplying minors with cigarettes.
According to Krylof, he paid the girls N$100 each time he had sex with them, further denying he was aware that they were under-aged.
According to a plea explanation submitted by his lawyer, Marinus Scholtz, the co-accused of Krylof called him during May 2017 and told him there was a lady who wanted to meet with him.
He then went to where Engelbrecht said they would be in Kuisebmond and spoke to the lady who wanted money and told her he will pay for sex.
She agreed and they went to his flat, where she asked him for a cigarette, which he gave her, Krylof stated.
He went on to say the lady was a bit small/ shortish in stature and that he asked of her age and she replied she was 17, turning 18, and that she had completed school.
He continued that he later also had intercourse with the second accused and that he paid them N$100 each and dropped them off in town.
According to Krylof, the complainant started contacting him regularly and he would pick her up for sex against payment and that whenever she would contact him for money, he would give between N$50 and N$100 if he had.
Krylof went on to say that around the beginning of June 2017, the girl would bring along some of her friends and he would have sexual intercourse with them for payment.
“None of these ladies looked like children,” he said, and added “they were not going to school, they were smoking – even at my flat – and they were quite experienced when it came to sex.”
According to him, he never forced any of the girls to have sex with him, or to do anything they did not freely and voluntarily want to do; neither did he and Engelbrecht have any arrangement for her or anybody else to recruit anyone to have sex with him.
He further said he would give the girls cigarettes whenever they asked him but he denied supplying them.
Engelbrecht corroborated what Krylof in a plea explanation submitted on her behalf and said she knew the complainants smoked and they even smoked cannabis at her residence.
She further said that she overheard them at one stage making jokes that Krylof paid them too little and they were thinking of blackmailing him and implicating him in having raped them.
The State is represented by advocate Palmer Khumalo.