Dirk Prinsloo 'was desperate'
2009-06-23 08:57
Johannesburg – Official police photographs of alleged child abuser and bank robber, Dirk Prinsloo, taken shortly after he was arrested in Belarus, show an unshaven man with a bruise on his forehead and dishevelled hair dyed a dark colour.
The pictures were taken after his arrest for his failed attempt to rob a bank.
Prinsloo was formally charged with attempted armed robbery on Thursday last week. He is facing three to ten years in prison if he’s found guilty.
On Monday his father, Johan Prinsloo, said the pictures gave the impression that his son “is not malnourished or battered”.
“He seems healthy, but you can see he is dejected.”
Robbery 'not in his blood'
He felt committing armed robbery was “not in his son’s blood”.
“When you take things that far and it isn’t in your blood and you try something and make a mess of it, it means you were desperate.”
In e-mails sent to Beeld two months before his arrest, Dirk Prinsloo wrote that he was about to take on a “very difficult and dangerous project”.
In another e-mail sent to the Sondag newspaper, shortly before he apparently attempted the robbery, he wrote: “I urgently need a loan.
All my friends who owe me money are avoiding me, because they think they’ll never have to face me again.”
One cashier is reportedly still receiving treatment at a local hospital, after apparently being assaulted by Prinsloo in the bank.
No income
Prinsloo had been living with his girlfriend, Tatiana, and their 1-year-old daughter in a flat on Parkovaya street in the town of Baranovichi, the same street where the bank he allegedly tried to rob is located.
Rapport stated over the weekend that Prinsloo also has a 2-year-old son with a certain Svetlana, who lives in the town of Soligorsk, about 132km from Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
The Zarya newspaper reported that Prinsloo had practically no income in Belarus, and somehow “made a living from business transactions over the internet”.
Even though he speaks almost no Russian, he was still able to “gain the trust of young women”.