One of four police officers linked to a R20 million jewelery heist in Llandudno claims he was sexually harassed while in custody.

Mthuthuzeli Mafanya took the stand in the Wynberg Magistrates Court on Monday as his bail application continued.

The agent and his co-defendant Jacobus Adriaan Groenewald, Bradley Dimitri Minnaar and Bathandwa Soldati were arrested in September after they searched a house in the Larney district.

The officers, from the Operation Restoration Unit and stationed in Cape Town, are accused of staging a robbery.

Mafanya claimed that while being processed, he was inappropriately touched by a female officer.

“While a captain was taking down my alibi, a female officer touched my breast. How can a female officer touch me like that? I have not opened a sexual harassment case, but I have informed my lawyer about what happened.”

He further detailed the “bad” treatment he received after surrendering to the police.

“They did not follow the procedure. They used this arrest as punishment.”

He said he was handcuffed and the metal caused him pain, claiming: “It was a case of assault.”

Mafanya said he was taken to Wynberg police station for questioning, where he was placed “in a dark cell, alone, with only a mattress, I was not given food. They wanted me to confess to something I didn’t do, I told them I would speak in court.”

Mafanya claims that he and his co-accused received a tip-off about a pearly and drug syndicate at the house in Llandudno, but the informants later changed their story to claim that two Nigerian criminals were in the house – one wanted by Interpol for cyber crimes and the other renting a warehouse in Killarney Gardens where he kept drugs.