Housewife 'lifted her skirt'
2007-04-24 14:48
Johannesburg - The Port Elizabeth High Court heard how a housewife was arrested two years ago for "loitering with the intent to commit prostitution", The Herald Online reported on Tuesday.
Laurika Vermeulen, 23, of Young Park, told the court on Monday she was waiting for her husband outside a pub two years ago when a police van pulled up.
A constable ordered her to get in without giving any reasons.
Vermeulen, mother of a baby girl, testified the policeman slapped and hit her when she resisted. He dragged her by her hair and pushed her into the van.
Vermeulen said she pleaded with the policeman and his woman partner to call her husband from inside the bar.
She showed them her wedding ring, but her protests fell on deaf ears.
Four other women inside the van told her she had been arrested for "being a lady of the night".
Vermeulen is claiming more than R500 000 from Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula for unlawful arrest, unlawful incarceration, unlawful prosecution, assault, injuries sustained and legal expenses.
Defence counsel Idris Dallah said the police officers would testify that she had lifted her short miniskirt.
Vermeulen said the skirt had been knee high and she was not the kind of person who would do such a thing.
After the ordeal, she appeared in court on charges of loitering with the intent to commit prostitution, but the case was later withdrawn.
- SAPA