Barbie 'wanted to please Dirk'
2009-06-15 22:14
Pretoria - The trial of Cézanne Visser, also known as Advocate Barbie, resumed in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday after a break of more than two months.
Visser was back in the dock on sex charges in the wake of weekend reports that her former lover, fugitive Dirk Prinsloo, had been arrested in Belarus.
Proceedings resumed with head of clinical psychology at Weskoppies Hospital, Professor Jonathan Scholtz, being cross-examined by State prosecutor Andre Fourie.
Acting Judge Chris Eksteen was told the trial would soon be concluded, with defence advocate Johann Engelbrecht SC indicating he would probably only call one more witness - a social worker - who would be ready to testify on Wednesday.
The case stood down until Wednesday for Fourie to look over his notes in order to decide whether there were any more questions he wanted to pose to Scholtz.
Judge wants case to end
Eksteen said he hoped that the parties would be ready to deliver their final arguments this week, as he wanted the long-running case to conclude as soon as possible.
Engelbrecht said it would not be possible to argue so soon, as his written heads of argument at this stage stretched over more than 300 pages, and he still had a lot to add.
Visser earlier pleaded not guilty to the 14 sex-related charges against her.
Neither she nor her mother, Susan Lemmer, wanted to talk about Prinsloo's arrest, stating that Engelbrecht instructed them not to discuss it with the media.
Battered woman profile
Scholtz, who earlier testified that Visser fitted the profile of a battered woman, on Monday reiterated this point.
He said while Visser could distinguish between right and wrong and had a will of her own, her ability to act accordingly was "severely compromised and curtailed".
He said Prinsloo, during the time they were a couple, wrote the script and she enacted it.
Fourie stated to Scholtz that one of the problems the State had with the defence’s battered woman argument, was that in many of the instances she took the initiative.
‘Had sex in front of child’
One such example, Fourie said, was where she fetched a child from an orphanage for a weekend visit to their home.
That night the child was sexually molested. Fourie said that while sitting in the lounge, Prinsloo and Visser were watching pornographic videos and they sexually engaged with each other in front of the child.
Fourie said at this point Visser told the child to "watch carefully as this is how it is done" - evidence which is denied by Visser - while Prinsloo told the child that she did not need to stay and watch if she did not want to.
"Here she took an important initiative," Fourie said.
Wanted to please Prinsloo
Scholtz, on the other hand, said Visser did this because she wanted to please Prinsloo.
He denied a suggestion by the State that Visser acted in this manner because she wanted to groom the child for further sexual encounters.
"It may have been Prinsloo's intention, but I do not believe it was her's [Visser]. It is my opinion that she wanted to please Prinsloo," Scholtz said.
He referred in this regard to a question earlier posed to Visser by the State during which she admitted that she would probably have committed a murder if Prinsloo had asked her to.
The State said another worrisome aspect was that Visser, even after she knew what would happen to the children after spending a weekend at their home, persisted in getting more children from children's homes for weekend visits.
Certain boundaries
"I gained the impression that she exactly knew what Prinsloo needed - what would keep him happy and satisfied."
Scholtz admitted that Visser in certain instances satisfied her own interests and when it came to her mother, she had certain boundaries.
As an example, he said, when Prinsloo gave her permission to go to Cape Town for a holiday with her mother it was on the proviso that she groomed her mother for future sex with him.
Visser, however, never did this.
Scholtz further admitted that when it came to people with whom Visser did not have a close emotional bond, she was prepared to overstep the boundaries.
- SAPA