Eastern Cape farmer and rape-accused Louis Lategan claims his ex-wife is trying to frame him. According to Lategan, in an effort to bolster her alleged attempts to gain sole custody of their children, she created a WhatsApp group with some of the complainants, as well as ‘a bald man’, and they allegedly conspired against him, he testified on Friday.

According to a News24 report, Lategan (43) is accused of luring six young women to his remote Aberdeen farm between 2020 and 2023, under the pretence of hiring them as au pairs, only to allegedly hold them captive and sexually assault them.

He is on trial in the Eastern Cape High Court (Makhanda), facing charges including human trafficking, rape, assault, assault GBH, and unlawful possession of ammunition.

According to Lategan’s testimony, the WhatsApp group – titled ‘Supporting Sisters’ – included his ex-wife, three of the complainants, identified by their initials J, B and A to protect their identities, and an unidentified man.

When the prosecutor, Nickie Turner, questioned him about the group messages and his claim of alleged collusion, Lategan stated that he had never read the messages.

He added that, at one point, B offered to read some of the messages to him, but he declined to listen.

Turner questioned Lategan regarding the ‘bald man’, asking how he knew such a person was in the alleged group if he had never read the messages.

Lategan responded that B had informed him about the individual. He claimed that, while he didn’t know the man’s identity, he ‘just assumed’ it could only be one person: his ex-wife’s boyfriend, who is now her husband.

Turner accused Lategan of attempting to frame his ex-wife to create the impression that she was trying to frame him first. 

Citing an exhibit submitted as evidence, which contained screenshots from B’s phone, Turner highlighted that messages between B and the accused’s ex-wife had been deleted by Lategan himself.

She explained that, in the private chat between B and the ex-wife, messages were exchanged by both parties, but all of B’s responses had been deleted.

This created the impression that the ex-wife was solely responsible for contacting B and attempting to orchestrate collusion against Lategan.

However, notes News24, Lategan maintained he was only aware of a single private message between the two women, and only learned about the full extent of their chats on the day of his arrest.

Lategan is accused of placing an advertisement on social media and, in some cases, sending private messages to six women, asking them to work for him and promising salaries ranging between R6 000 and R8 000.

Desperate for financial stability, the women accepted the offer, but were allegedly held captive, repeatedly raped, and two of them became pregnant.

Lategan maintains that all sexual acts were consensual.

Full News24 report