“Today“ I am putting a stop to my five to six-year journey of abuse... I long for peace”.
This was contained in a desperate plea for help as part of a protection order application made by the former girlfriend of accused serial killer Johan Williams, about a month before he allegedly committed two of the three murders he is accused of.
The woman, who is also the daughter of one of Williams' accused murder victims, read aloud from her application against Williams on May 28, 2018, shedding tears as she continued her testimony before the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.
The woman, whose identity the court asked to remain undisclosed following the denial of a section 153 application, is also the mother of Williams’ daughter.
In her application, read out in Afrikaans in court, the woman struggled to choke back her tears, rehashing the trauma she had suffered at the hands of Williams.
“I am being threatened with death.
I fear for my life and I no longer want to live with him. I have to hear that I am a whore when I return from work... he has assaulted me but I have always had a fear to report the abuse he put me through because I am being threatened.
“I am only now making this report because things are just getting worse now. He has been raping me for two months, not asking for permission to have intercourse... I am now afraid to sleep because when I wake, I find my pants at my ankles,” an extract of the protection order application read.
However, the summons to appear in court was never served on Williams and when they were to appear in court on June 14, 2018, the woman was instructed to serve it on Williams herself or request the assistance of her local police station to deliver it to him.
After entering into what the woman described as a “loveless relationship” with Williams, she further told the court she only stayed in the relationship due to ongoing threats he made, adding he “never allowed me to have friends or contact with family”.
According to the woman, threats Williams had made extended to her family and because of this, she felt a duty to protect them.
Telling of the impact the abuse has had on her over the years, she said she still had ”nightmares to this day and I still receive STI injections”.
“And while I know he is imprisoned, I am still fearful and look over my shoulder all the time, fearful that he may have somebody come to hurt me,” said the witness.
Williams, through his lawyer, denied all the allegations against him in the protection order and submitted that she stayed in the relationship voluntarily.
The court also, this week, heard how Williams had, after allegedly kidnapping her, repeatedly raped, attempted to rape and assaulted his former lover for about seven days while the Wellington community searched for Chantell Matthyssen.
Matthyssen was one of two victims allegedly lured to Wellington by Williams, under the guise of getting them a job but instead allegedly raped and killed them before he buried their bodies in shallow graves in the Boland.
The first murder victim’s skeletal remains were found after Williams pointed police to all three graves following his arrest in 2018.
Forensic evidence before court detailed that all three victims had strangulation ligature marks when they were found.
Cape Times