Boy breaks down during porn trial of model boss

A 10-YEAR-OLD boy broke down while testifying in the child pornography trial of Joburg model agency boss Dawie de Villiers yesterday.

The boy, speaking via a court intermediary, said he had last seen De Villiers three years ago after allegedly being exposed to pornography.

Prosecutor Arveena Persad asked the child, who was aged between six and seven at the time, why his mother didn’t allow him to visit De Villiers again.

“She told me it was because he was in jail,” he said, and started crying, prompting Judge Cassim Moosa to adjourn the court to allow the boy time to recover.

After the adjournment, Persad asked the primary school pupil if he was cross with De Villiers.

“No, I am not angry at him,” the boy replied.

During cross-examination, De Villiers’s lawyer, Jacques Pienaar, asked the boy if he knew that the girls his client photographed were models.

“Yes, I knew they were models,” the boy answered.

“Do you remember Dawie taking photographs of you in a cowboy outfit?” he asked the boy, who confirmed he remembered the photograph.

Another child, an eight-yearold girl, took the stand next.

She told the court De Villiers took photos of girls and would then sit and work on the computer when she visited him.

Persad asked her if she remembered seeing naked girls at De Villiers’s house when she visited him a few years ago.

“I saw some in panties and some in shorts. The girls would go to the bathroom to change and I went with them. I saw their breasts and bums,” she said through the court intermediary.

The boy and girl were the children to whom the State alleged De Villiers showed pornography.

The State alleged De Villiers, owner of Model South Africa (Pty) Ltd, committed various acts of sexual assault, including rape, exposing two children to pornography, accessing and possession of child pornography, sexual grooming, crimen injuria and fraud between 2011 and 2013.

He is facing 38 charges. The trial continues. – ANA