A Windhoek resident accused of sexually abusing under-age boys and using them to make pornographic material that he sold to international buyers denied guilt on 74 charges when his trial started in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.
“Not guilty,” Johann Maree (52) responded when he was asked to give his plea on each of the 74 main charges and alternative counts under some of those charges on which he will be standing trial before judge Philanda Christiaan.
Maree would not be giving a plea explanation to the court, but he will be disputing that some documents which the state intends to use in the trial are admissible as evidence, his defence lawyer, Titus Ipumbu, told the judge.
The 74 charges on which Maree is being prosecuted include 24 counts of rape, 10 counts of using a child to create pornography, 18 counts of child trafficking, five charges of committing an indecent act with a child under the age of 16, 13 counts of encouraging or allowing a child under the age of 16 to drink liquor and a charge of money laundering.
The charges involve 15 under-age boys. The state is alleging that 13 of the boys were raped or indecently assaulted by Maree during the period from 2014 to April 2020 and that he also used 10 of the boys to make pornographic material.
Maree, who was self-employed as a photographer and videographer, allegedly sold the pornographic material to buyers outside Namibia, who paid him through a money transfer service.
According to the state, Maree received payments totalling about N$77 000 from nine buyers, based in the United States, The Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Australia, from December 2015 to February 2020.
He was arrested and charged at the end of April 2020, following an investigation prompted by a request from the police in The Netherlands for assistance from the Namibian Police.
The state is alleging that as part of his activities as a photographer and videographer Maree attended swimming events and other sporting activities in Windhoek.
At these events he befriended some families and their children, and thereafter on various occasions took the children named in the charges to his home in Windhoek, “for purposes of engaging in sexual acts and filming those children in various states of undress and nudity”, it is alleged in a summary of the prosecution’s case.
The state is also alleging that Maree installed hidden cameras in the changing rooms and toilets of the public swimming pool in the Olympia area of Windhoek, and that he used those cameras to record and take photos of two boys while they were naked or using the toilet.
In two of charges of committing an indecent or immoral act with a child below the age of 16 years that are faced by Maree, the state is alleging that he touched the private parts of two under-age boys and made a mould or cast of their genitals.
Maree is a former police officer, and was also a police reservist before his arrest.
He has been held in custody since his arrest nearly four years ago.
State advocate Palmer Kumalo is representing the prosecution in the proceedings before Christiaan.
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