Recommendation of max sentences for guilty trio in Joshlin Smith case

A probation officer who compiled reports on three convicted human traffickers, Kelly Smith, Jacquen Appollis and Steveno Van Rhyn has recommended a maximum sentence for the accused.

Sentencing procedures in the Joshlin Smith kidnapping and human trafficking case continued today in the Western Cape High Court in Saldanha Bay on the West Coast.

Errol Pieterson told the court that due to the seriousness of the convictions, a suspended sentence would not be appropriate.

“And in the light of not just alone but considered that Jacquen’s grandmother of his two children as well as his own sister spoke of his propensity. All of these factors together as I have said it before, Steveno Van Rhyn is a menace to society. ”

When handing judgment a few weeks ago, Presiding Judge Nathan Erasmus said, “I was told that what they admitted to in those statements came from the police and the police told them what to say. I have no hesitation in finding that the evidence for the defence in that score was so bad that nobody can believe it, that nobody can come and testify again because the prosecutors wiped the floor clean with their evidence to use the colloquial term.”