Model agency boss back in court
Final arguments will be heard in the High Court sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, in the case against model boss Dawie de Villiers who faces a string of charges including rape, sexual assault, sexual grooming.
On August 10, the case was postponed after Prosecuter Arveena Persad said De Villiers’s defence team had informed him that they would be ready to submit their heads of argument in September.
Judge Cassim Moosa postponed the matter and extended De Villiers’s bail.
De Villiers, founder of Modelling South Africa (PTY), is accused of 38 counts of rape, sexual assault, indecent assault, sexual grooming, possession and accessing of child pornography as well as fraud and theft. The charges date back to 2010.
In October last year, the mother of the 23-year-old woman, who was allegedly kissed and touched inappropriately by De Villiers, told the court that she was aware the model agency boss made her daughter “uncomfortable”.
She said she knew De Villiers from modeling competitions in 2008 when her daughter started modelling and said her daughter had told her and her husband about the gestures that De Villiers had made towards her and they decided to open a case against De Villiers in 2009.
The court heard that nothing happened with the case and her daughter stopped modelling after the incidents.
The court requested that De Villiers stand next to the 23-year-old woman to compare the height of the two in order to determine whether it was possible for De Villiers to push and kiss the woman against the car.
The mother later told the court that she thought her daughter would tell her about De Villiers asking to swim naked with her.
De Villiers has denied the allegations levelled against him.