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Barbie: 'Cops lied, bungled'
01/02/2005 18:00 - (SA)
Pretoria - Police probing alleged sex crimes against Pretoria advocates Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo were accused in the High Court on Tuesday of lying, bungling, overstepping their powers and sensationalising the case through the media.
Cross examining investigating officer captain Carel Cornelius, Prinsloo's advocate, Piet Coetzee, intimated that police had lied in sworn affidavits used to obtain arrest and search warrants in the case.
The affidavits apparently had referred to the sexual abuse of several minor girls at a time when police knew of only one alleged victim.
Coetzee accused Cornelius of botching a part of the investigation when he examined six "stiffy" disks seized from Prinsloo and Visser's Raslouw, Pretoria, home in December 2002.
He should have passed them on to the police's technical support unit, who could have checked the disks' contents without compromising them.
Wrecked validity of the proof
Instead, by opening the disks himself, Cornelius had ensured it would be impossible to determine the history of specific files.
Files on one of the disks had apparently contained child pornography, but Coetzee said it would now be impossible for the State to prove that these were not planted.
Coetzee also accused Cornelius of overstepping his powers by cancelling some of the arrest and search warrants, saying only a magistrate could perform this function.
This meant that a search warrant "cancelled" by Cornelius and later replaced with a more-expansive one, actually had been in place when police searched the couple's home and seized an array of items.
The initial warrant had allowed investigators only to seize photos and photo negatives of minor girls.
But, police also had seized pornographic videos and magazines, a variety of drugs, and pictures of sex scenes with adult women.
Coetzee queried why Cornelius had taken his own statement from a 14-year-old alleged victim when another already had been given under oath. The first statement was subsequently "lost", and the one taken by Cornelius was the only one on the police docket.
Prinsloo and Visser are accused of a number sexual violations of women and girls.
Visser, dubbed "Advocate Barbie" for an apparent likeness to the blonde, busty plastic doll, faces 15 charges and Prinsloo 16.
Coetzee charged investigators on Tuesday with sensationalising the case.
'Wanted it in the press'
The use of special task force members to affect the pair's arrest was aimed solely at embarrassing his client "and to get it into the press".
The pair face two charges of rape, four of indecent assault, three of enticing a minor to commit indecent acts, one each of fraud, sexual exploitation of a minor and possessing child pornography, two of manufacturing such material, and one of possessing dagga.
Four of their alleged victims were minors.
Prinsloo faces an additional charge of assault.
The couple are out on bail of R4 000 each.
- SAPA
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