News24 | Eastern Cape farmer who lured women to remote farm found guilty of rape, trafficking

Aberdeen farmer Louis Lategan has been found guilty on a litany of charges.

Lynn Williams/News24

Aberdeen farmer Louis Lategan has been found guilty on a litany of charges – including rape, assault and human trafficking – in the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda.

Lategan, 43, trafficked six women to his remote farm in the Eastern Cape under the guise of offering them a job as au pairs between 2020 and 2023.

Acting Judge Judith Roberson convicted him on five counts of rape, six counts of human trafficking, and eight counts of assault.

Roberson found that the farmer acted with premeditation, noting a distinct pattern in recruiting the women that she equated with deliberate planning rather than impulse.

This is a developing story.

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