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Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - Web posted at 7:32:45 GMT Peeping Tom case before court ELMA ROBBERTSFOUR schoolgirls took turns in the witness stand of the Swakopmund Magistrate's Court last week to tell Magistrate Vicky Nicolaides about their ordeal at a gymnasium in Swakopmund where they claim they were being secretly filmed while getting undressed in the changing rooms. |
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The former owner of the Genesis gymnasium, Heinz Laube, was arrested and charged with five counts of crimen injuria in August 2004, after a video camera was discovered on the ceiling above the women's changing rooms. A videotape containing scenes of female clients, some naked and others getting dressed, was found in the camera, according to witnesses. Testimonies of State witnesses were heard in the court last week, but the hearing was adjourned once more on Friday because some witnesses for the prosecution were not available. The next court date will be in March 2007. On Monday, two of the girls told the court that they had become uneasy shortly after they became members of the gym because Laube had often discussed matters of a sexual and personal nature with them at the gym. They said they had often sensed that someone was watching them in the changing rooms and that they could hear footsteps on the ceiling. Their suspicions grew stronger when an employee at the time as well as a regular client at the gym warned them that Laube disappeared from the gym every time they went into the changing rooms. On one occasion, in a little maintenance room close to the dressing rooms, they discovered a ladder leading into the ceiling through an open hatch. They said they climbed up the ladder but found nothing except for a screwdriver, a box, a light bulb and a gap in the ceiling where a light fixture was missing. From that day, they covered the air vents above the changing room with towels or T-shirts. The mother of one of the girls told the court that she had accompanied the group of friends to the gym to see whether there was reason for concern. When the girls went into the changing rooms, she said, Laube was nowhere to be found. She claimed that Laube later came out of the maintenance room where the ladder was, even though there was no one in the room when she peeked into it minutes before. Contradicting testimonies from three young men followed when first Michael Oxorub, a regular client at the gym, Lonan Nangombe, who was employed there at the time, and Mervin Dennis, also a former member, were called by State Prosecutor Heidi Jacobs. Oxorub and Nangombe had apparently discovered the video camera on the ceiling and Oxorub had taken it to his home, where the three men watched the video. Oxorub and Nangombe, however, disagreed in their testimonies as to which one of them found the camera first and the events that followed. Both denied that they had ever approached the girls and warned them about Laube's movements. When defence counsel Sacky Kadhila Amoomo asked Oxorub why, in the seven months after Nangombe had removed the camera, they hadn't taken it to the Police, the witness replied "it was not in my interest". He said that he was waiting for an amount of money that Laube had supposedly offered them to return the items. Oxorub argued that he had planned to give the money to the Police as "solid proof" of Laube's alleged crime. Oxorub's claim that he couldn't remember having written any letters to Laube, was quickly refuted by Amoomo with a copy of a letter from Oxorub to Laube which read: "So be it. You do what you can. We'll do everything we can to destroy you. We'll make sure you lose everything. The countdown is here. We'll make you famous, very famous." He could neither explain omissions in his Police statement, nor why he had watched the video five times. According to Oxorub, Laube had admitted to him in January 2004 that he [Laube] had filmed the girls and made an offer of N$50 000 for Oxorub to return the camera and video. The witness claimed that he was not interested in the money and that they had not negotiated Laube's offer. Contrary to Oxorub's testimony, Nangombe told the court that it was Oxorub who had discovered and removed the camera. He said Laube had offered N$300 000 for the items, but needed time to raise the money. Nangombe admitted that he had made a copy of the video. Dennis testified that he was shocked after watching the film and had phoned Laube to confront him. He claimed that Laube had offered him N$300 000 in return for the items, but that he only wanted the money as solid evidence for the Police's investigation. Amoomo however drew his attention to a part in his Police statement in which he said that he needed money to finance a business plan. Oxorub, Nangombe and Dennis told the court that Laube and three other men, one supposedly a private investigator, had found them at a supermarket after presumably tracing a phone call they had made to Laube. They claimed that they were threatened into handing over the original video and camera, which was allegedly destroyed by Laube later that day. Oxorub said they had decided to turn over the copy of the videotape to the Police in August 2004, after both he and Nangombe had been physically thrown out of the gymnasium by a friend of Laube's and they had grown tired of waiting for the money. The three men are facing charges of extortion. They denied suggestions by the defence counsel that they had made the video for the purpose of blackmailing the accused. Forensic experts and some of the victims delivered their testimony in camera. Laube said he had to sell the gymnasium for a song earlier this year to foot his legal bills. |
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