Serial child rapist nailed
Dragan Vujicin has been found guilty of raping four children at Swakopmund five years ago.
Swakopmund resident Dragan Vujicin (68) has been convicted on seven counts of rape and four counts of child trafficking.
He was found guilty of sexually abusing four girls, between the ages of seven and nine, five years ago.
Vujicin stood expressionless in the dock yesterday while Magistrate Gaynor Poulton read out her two-hour-long judgment.
“You harboured these young girls with the intent to sexually exploit them,” Poulton found.
Vujicin, then 63 years old, was arrested in March 2014.
Vujicin was renting an apartment with his wife and two children in Swakopmund's Mondesa residential area. On the same property other tenants lived in shacks and their children used to play together.
The children testified that they regularly visited Vujicin in his home to either clean his room or wash dishes. On occasion he would watch a pornographic film and was usually naked, only covering his genitals with a towel.
“It is well known that he had a very good relationship with the children and they with him,” Poulton summarised the testimony.
According to Vujicin he spoiled the children because they were “very poor”.
He offered them ice cream, sweets, Brötchen or small change. In return the four children would masturbate him.
This happened on numerous occasions between 2013 and 2014. After each “visit” he is said to have rewarded the four underage girls, sometimes with N$2 each. Sexual intercourse allegedly never occurred.
The abuse was revealed after a conversation between the children was overheard by their parents. One girl allegedly said, “let us pump the uncle for money”. The parents then pressed charges and Vujicin was arrested.
After nearly five years, several witness statements, including that of a psychologist and the four victims themselves, Vujicin was found guilty by the Regional Court yesterday.
His N$5 000 bail was cancelled and the case was postponed to February 15 for prosecutor Dalon Quickfall and lawyer Mpokiseng Dube to submit arguments in mitigation or aggravation of sentence.
During the trial Vujicin denied the allegations, claiming that the victims' parents had fabricated the accusation because they were “jealous of him” and because “he was married to a black woman”. Magistrate Poulton described this version as a lie and dismissed it.
Vujicin is an alleged repeat offender, who is said to have sexually abused his stepdaughter, Lucy Witts, over 30 years ago when she was a minor. In the documentary Dragan's Lair, which was produced by Witts, these allegations came to the fore. The film is freely available on the internet.
In the film, which was released in October 2017, Witts confronts Vujicin. “In the beginning I went out with your mother, later with you,” Vujicin says, and adds: “I wanted to make you my wife.” Furthermore, Vujicin claims that he never had another relationship like the one he had with his stepdaughter.
Witts claims that he sexually abused her between the ages of two and twelve. Namibian Sun reported extensively on the matter in 2016.
At the end of the film Vujicin says: “Justice has to prevail because it will never take an end to this story. I must stop running away from my shadow.”
ERWIN LEUSCHNER
He was found guilty of sexually abusing four girls, between the ages of seven and nine, five years ago.
Vujicin stood expressionless in the dock yesterday while Magistrate Gaynor Poulton read out her two-hour-long judgment.
“You harboured these young girls with the intent to sexually exploit them,” Poulton found.
Vujicin, then 63 years old, was arrested in March 2014.
Vujicin was renting an apartment with his wife and two children in Swakopmund's Mondesa residential area. On the same property other tenants lived in shacks and their children used to play together.
The children testified that they regularly visited Vujicin in his home to either clean his room or wash dishes. On occasion he would watch a pornographic film and was usually naked, only covering his genitals with a towel.
“It is well known that he had a very good relationship with the children and they with him,” Poulton summarised the testimony.
According to Vujicin he spoiled the children because they were “very poor”.
He offered them ice cream, sweets, Brötchen or small change. In return the four children would masturbate him.
This happened on numerous occasions between 2013 and 2014. After each “visit” he is said to have rewarded the four underage girls, sometimes with N$2 each. Sexual intercourse allegedly never occurred.
The abuse was revealed after a conversation between the children was overheard by their parents. One girl allegedly said, “let us pump the uncle for money”. The parents then pressed charges and Vujicin was arrested.
After nearly five years, several witness statements, including that of a psychologist and the four victims themselves, Vujicin was found guilty by the Regional Court yesterday.
His N$5 000 bail was cancelled and the case was postponed to February 15 for prosecutor Dalon Quickfall and lawyer Mpokiseng Dube to submit arguments in mitigation or aggravation of sentence.
During the trial Vujicin denied the allegations, claiming that the victims' parents had fabricated the accusation because they were “jealous of him” and because “he was married to a black woman”. Magistrate Poulton described this version as a lie and dismissed it.
Vujicin is an alleged repeat offender, who is said to have sexually abused his stepdaughter, Lucy Witts, over 30 years ago when she was a minor. In the documentary Dragan's Lair, which was produced by Witts, these allegations came to the fore. The film is freely available on the internet.
In the film, which was released in October 2017, Witts confronts Vujicin. “In the beginning I went out with your mother, later with you,” Vujicin says, and adds: “I wanted to make you my wife.” Furthermore, Vujicin claims that he never had another relationship like the one he had with his stepdaughter.
Witts claims that he sexually abused her between the ages of two and twelve. Namibian Sun reported extensively on the matter in 2016.
At the end of the film Vujicin says: “Justice has to prevail because it will never take an end to this story. I must stop running away from my shadow.”
ERWIN LEUSCHNER
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